Unexpected
by musicxlife4
Summary: They were drinking. They were dancing. It shouldn't have happened, but it did. Now two members of the BAU have a secret. How can they keep it from their team, their family? They can't. JJ/Morgan. *NEW SUMMARY! the old one sucked!*
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I have written other FanFiction, but I've never posted anything. So here you go and I hope you like it! Please read and review. I would like to know if I should continue or not ****Thanks!**

**This might turn a little Mature in later chapters. I'm not sure yet, but we'll see!**

Unexpected

The screeching sound of the alarm clock told Agent Derek Morgan that it was time for another day. He had gotten in late last night from a case they had worked in a small town in North Dakota. Turns out a psycho was kidnapping and killing young women…how original. As he prepared himself for the day, Derek couldn't get the awful images out of his head- the burns on the victim's hands and feet, the bruises on their inner thighs, the needles that were placed like acupuncture on their stomachs, and worst of all, the horror-struck dead faces of the killer's victims. Unfortunately, it wasn't the worst that he's seen, but it came pretty close.

After Derek was all dressed and his coffee cup was filled, he headed off to work to see what JJ had in store for them today.

When he got to the office he was surprised to hear that the case that JJ was planning to present to them had been solved. The team was off the hook for the moment. JJ went back to sifting through cases that could potentially need attention.

Hotch sent Prentiss and Morgan to organize old case files, while he and Reid got to work on organizing their desks and office spaces. Rossi went home because he was feeling sick and nobody wanted to catch whatever he had.

The team finished their chores quickly and spent the rest of the afternoon socializing. Even JJ took a break and joined in on the fun. Normally the team would have paperwork to do, but today they barely had any and Hotch decided to allow them to enjoy themselves. They don't often get to.

That night Hotch took everyone out for drinks. It felt like some sort of holiday. It was truly a great day when nobody had to look at dead bodies or put their life at risk, and the whole team seemed to be taking full advantage of their temporary good fortune. Even Hailey came to party with her husband's co-workers.

By about midnight it seemed that everyone on the team was having a little bit too much fun. Hotch had stopped buying everyone's drink hours ago, but the members of the BAU were buying their own, and they were considerably drunk.

Dr. Reid had impressed a pretty girl with his magic tricks, so they were sitting at the bar. Morgan had to laugh at the sight. Reid's awkwardness worked in his favor. Apparently the ladies think it's cute.

Emily had found herself some cute, young guy to dance with. She looked like she was having a good time.

Hotch and Hailey were dancing out of rhythm with the music. Slow dancing. Absorbed in each other. He could feel the warmth of their love in the midst of all the lust in the bar.

Oh yes, he could sense the lust that women had for him. Derek Morgan is sexy and he sure as hell knows it. He uses it to his advantage all the time, even at work. It's how he charms Garcia every time he speaks to her. Speaking of Garcia, where is she?

Derek scanned the room and his eyes landed on Penelope's curly blonde and pink hair. She was flirting with a guy that looked about as computer savvy as she is-if that's even possible.

A couple feet away Morgan could see JJ. She was so professional at work that he had a hard time believing that it was really her grinding on some guy that was almost as good-looking as Morgan himself.

He watched her hips sway side-to-side. His eyes roamed her body. The light reflected off of her shiny blonde hair. Her eyes were closed as she leaned back against the lucky man she was dancing with.

Suddenly, an unknown sensation filled Agent Morgan's entire being. It spread through his veins like a wildfire. Jealousy. It's not like he was instantly in love with her or anything, but if Derek noticed anything it was beauty, and JJ was beautiful. He wanted to dance with JJ, and he wanted to dance with her right away.

God must have been smiling down on Derek that night, because just at that moment the song ended and JJ stepped away from her dance partner.

He made his way over to the blonde. A hunter creeping towards his prey. She was still on the dancefloor, swaying her body to the music. He took in her appearance. She wore a small black number that came low on her chest and high on her thighs. It flowed around her body. Morgan had never seen her look so sexy. He walked up behind her and placed the hand on the small of her back.

"Would you like to dance?" Derek asked in his smoothest voice, the one that the ladies can't resist.

Sure enough, JJ accepted his offer and the two of them made their way deeper into the crowd of dancers. They ended up right next to Emily and her partner, but she was too caught up in her mystery man to notice her team members dancing together right by her.

Morgan didn't realize just how intoxicated JJ really was. She was singing along with the music and waving her hands in the air. She was so different from the controlling Agent Jennifer Jareau he knew from work. She was funny any exciting and a hella good dancer too. After two songs of bumping and grinding against her co-worker, JJ turned around to face him while they danced.

JJ wasn't so drunk that she didn't notice the way Morgan's muscular body, or the way he held her tightly, as if he never wanted to let go. The way he looked at her. The way he leaned in so that his mouth was at her ear. She could hear him breathing heavy, and secrelty hoped that it was her dancing that made him do that. She especially noticed how close their bodies were. No personal space, and they both liked it that way. Yes, JJ was drunk, but she was aware of the chemistry filling the air.

Derek moved one of his hands from her back to the back of her neck and trailed his fingers up to her jaw. Something was happening that he couldn't control. The next thing he knew he was leaning his head down into hers. He kissed her right on the mouth. It wasn't a raunchy, drunk kiss by any means. It was just a good solid kiss, and JJ responded by pulling him closer and smiled as she leaned her head against his chest.

When the song was over they both looked at each other and laughed. She really was one of the most beautiful women that Derek had ever seen. He felt silly for getting so jealous when he saw her with that other guy. It's not like she was his girlfriend. Other guys can't be oblivious to her radiance. She probably goes on dates with other good-looking guys every night that she isn't working. He mentally smirked when he realized that that leaves only a few nights a month. Within a few hours time the drinks will wear off and JJ will go bac to being herself. Morgan liked her when she was their controlling media specialist, but he was also thrilled to see this side of her. He wondered how many people knew this person, this version of Jennifer Jareau.

He decided that he wanted to become friends with her, not just work friends. JJ just seemed like someone he would like to hang out with when he wasn't chasing down the mentally insane. She was fun, smart, exciting, strong, funny and so much more that he wanted to learn about her. He had a feeling that Garcia would be busy with her new boyfriend that she was making out with for a while, and Derek could form a new solid relationship with someone on the team.

He decided that he would ask her out for coffee sometime after work this week-just as friends of course.

***Alright guys! That's the first chapter! Did you like it? I have big plans for this story so tell me how you feel about it. The next chapters will be up soon I hope. Thanks for reading and REVIEWING! :) **


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Wow guys! Thanks for the reviews! I didn't expect people to actually read it. I mean I know that's why people put stories on this site, but it's amazing to have people read my story and write positive things about it! Thank you so much, and I am open to criticism as well. I'm trying to become a better writer, and any advice anybody has for me is much appreciated (just try not to be too mean about it :) ****) Alright I'll get on with the story now!**

***I added more to the first chapter the same night that I posted it the first time, so please double-check to make sure that you read the entire new version of the first chapter.**

**I, unfortunately, do not own Criminal Minds or any of these characters, that would be the ingenious writers and actors of the show-of which I am not :/**

Chapter 2

The following morning Derek walked into work ready to go. They had gotten a call early in the morning from Carmel, Indiana asking for some assistance in a series of disappearances. As usual they are all younger women between the age of twenty-three and thirty. They all lived alone in upscale suburban houses. One of the victims even had a baby that the unsub left behind.

It only took them two days to solve the case. The unsub left some DNA at one of the houses on accident, so Garcia was able to find the man's address and the team found the women in the killer's basement, all alive. This killer was one of the easiest ever to catch. He just kidnapped the women that he thought should have a man supporting them and their expensive possessions. He wanted to be that man-for five women. The BAU wouldn't have even normally taken this case, but Hotch knew the lead detective and decided that they could help them out since they didn't have any other emergency cases that needed their attention.

Although the case was pretty straight-forward, Derek hadn't been able to say more than two words to JJ the entire time they were in Indiana. Mostly because there were so many reporters that she needed to talk to. The job came first for both of them.

JJ had definitely gone back to her usual self. Neither of them had said a word about the kiss. They didn't even act weird around each other. It was really as if that night hadn't happened at all.

They were both surprised that nobody from the team had seen them kissing or dancing though. Everyone must have been so relieved to be spending some personal, crazy time, that even though they were with each other, they didn't pay attention to each other at all.

As soon as Morgan got off the jet her took the opportunity.

"Hey, JJ! You wanna hit up the coffee shop down the street?"

"Yeah! That sounds good. Can I stop by my house real fast though? I want to change my clothes," JJ answered, uncertain of why her co-worker was asking her out to coffee. She remembered the kiss of course, she wasn't that drunk. It was obviously just a drunk mistake, right? Was Morgan even drunk that night? She couldn't remember, she was distracted by other things. Oh well, it's probably nothing.

They made plans to meet for coffee in an hour. They both had time to shower and change clothes. JJ was wondering what exactly Morgan wanted to meet for coffee for.

JJ sifted through her clothes wondering what would be appropriate for this…date? She didn't even know what this was. She didn't want to read too much into it. It's probably no big deal; he's probably just asking to be polite. Out of everyone at the BAU, JJ has probably spent the least amount of time with Morgan. She barely knew anything about him, other than part of his unpleasant childhood experience with his youth center director. She was sure that he didn't know much about her either. Maybe he just wants to get together to learn more about each other. He just chose the coffee house because here's never enough time at work.

That became JJ's conclusion.

She decided to go comfortable. The skirts and heels got old after a while. Since she had concluded that this was just a casual get together between friends, JJ chose her favorite Redskins sweatshirt and a comfy pairs of jeans to wear. She pulled her hair back into a high, lose ponytail and walked out the front door.

When Derek got to the coffee shop he realized that he didn't really have an excuse for inviting JJ for coffee. He figured it wouldn't be wise to say that he decided to be friends with her while she was drunkenly dancing all over him.

He looked around the room, but she wasn't there yet. He chose a booth in the corner, but it wasn't secluded. He didn't want to give the wrong impression. He would work hard at not giving the idea that this was a date to JJ. He didn't know if he wanted it to be or not, but he didn't want to scare her away and never get to know her for who she really was, and not for just the woman he knew from work.

After about two minutes of twiddling his thumbs, Morgan saw her through the window. She walked in with her hair in a ponytail, a football sweatshirt, and jeans that made her ass look really good. She looked so cute when she dressed down. He had never seen JJ look so comfortable.

He realized that he was a tad overdressed in his gray button-down shirt and nice jeans, but he had to shrug it off because she was coming his way.

"Hey," is what came out of JJ's mouth, while, "Shit! I look like a scrub compared to his nice outfit!" is what she thought in her head.

"Hey. You look comfy," Morgan teased her.

"Well I didn't realize that this was a beauty contest, Morgan."

"I wouldn't have a chance if that were the case."

And before JJ's cheeks had a chance to turn red, Derek left to go order the coffee. He came back with her favorite kind of coffee. _How did he know that my favorite coffee is a caramel frappe chino? _Maybe he knew more about her than she realized.

There was nothing remarkable about their "date" by any means. They talked about work a lot. They both missed Elle, but really liked Emily being on the team. She was a very good and strong addition to the BAU. They discussed their feelings about Gideon. He was a good profiler, but something about him had always annoyed both of them, but they could never figure out what it was. Derek and JJ were surprised to find that they felt the same way about him. Most people loved him.

She asked Derek what he does in his free time. He was embarrassed to admit that he only really hangs out at home or works out when he isn't at work. JJ, on the other hand, leads a very busy life. When she isn't at work, she helps plan her friend's wedding, babysit the neighbor kids, has girl's nights with her friends, and takes her father fishing.

It troubled Morgan.

_She really is, like, the perfect person. There isn't a bad bone in her body. She would never want to be with a guy like me-someone with my kind of past. Focus. We're just friends going out for some coffee. There's no reason to think like that, since that isn't the goal anyways. _

He tried to convince himself that he didn't have feelings for JJ, but it was a wasted effort. He did like her. He had no idea quite how much though.

"So how was the Redskins game with Reid? Did you have fun on your date?" Morgan asked.

"That's classified information," JJ joked.

"Reid said the exact same thing. I'm thinking that something happened between you two. Did you and Reid get a little crazy?" Derek tried to sound like he thought it was funny, but secretly he hoped that they hadn't done anything 'unprofessional'. He would surely get that awful feeling of jealousy again.

"Hahaha. Not at all. He's a really nice guy, but it was just super awkward because he doesn't know anything about football. Plus, we're co-workers, and he's younger than me. I had a good time, but I'm glad we had the game to pay attention to besides just each other."

"Like us right now?" Derek mentally cursed himself. Why did he have to have word vomit like that? He needed to work on controlling what he said.

JJ just smiled. He was acting weird, but she shrugged it off. He's probably just tired.

They continued talking for another hour before JJ noticed the time. It was almost midnight. She needed to get some sleep before work tomorrow.

Derek offered to drive her home. Although that had been talking non-stop at the restaurant, that wasn't the case in the car. They weren't talking at all. He figured that she was just tired, but he was running through all of the possible ways in which he should end the night.

He could just pull up to the curb, wait for her to get out, say goodnight, and drive away. He could walk her to her door, say goodnight, give her a hug, then leave. Or he could be so bold as to give her a kiss.

_No Derek! You are just friends. You work together. You can't just go around kissing your co-workers all the time (JJ was the only one). Plus, she doesn't like you like that._

He decided on option number two, but probably excluding the hug. They weren't close enough for that yet. They arrived at her house.

Derek felt like a teenage boy again. He didn't know what to do. Would she actually want him to walk to her to her door?

JJ said thank you for the coffee and got out of the car. She was surprised to turn around and see Morgan doing the same thing. _He's going to walk me to my door? Wow, maybe this was a date._

When they got to the door he held out his arms for a hug. JJ was surprised, but couldn't say she was disappointed in his move. No woman could deny his amazing body, or the adorable face that went with it.

It wasn't an awkward hug, and he didn't embrace her as if he loved her or something. It was just a good, solid hug- just like their kiss.

***Okay! So there's another chapter! Sorry it took a couple of days. I have the beginning of this story written out in a notebook, but I have to edit and add stuff as I type and it's taking longer than I thought! **

**Once again, thank you so much for the reviews! They were so great! **

**Also, I apologize for my lack of profiling ability. I am not a profiler, so I find it very hard to write profiles, so I'm going to stray away from that as much as possible. Thus, I won't have many cases in my stories. Maybe I'll get better, we'll see. **

**The next chapter should be up soon! I also have an idea for another fanfic. What about the whole team going on a cruise together? Obviously there will be some juicy stuff happening. What do you think? Should I write it? I don't want to waste my time if it sounds stupid. Let me know when you REVIEW! Alright I'll stop rambling now. Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Sorry this took so long! I completely understand the frustration that comes with stories that you like not being updated, but I'm doing my best. It's hard to find time to sit down inside during summer what with work and friends and such. Here you go! Bear with me, this chapter starts off kind of slow, but don't worry! I'll have some juice for you at the end of it, and the next couple of chapters will be as juicy as Juicy Juice! Thanks for the reviews! They are so great!**

**I do not own Criminal Minds or its fantastic characters :(**

**Chapter 3**

In an effort to not come on too strong, Derek decided that he would wait a while before asking JJ to go out again. For the next couple of days the two merely chatted at work whenever they got the chance, and he occasionally walked her to her car.

Chemistry filled the air whenever JJ and Morgan were together, but they didn't act on it. They worked together. It could never work out.

_Could it?_

JJ found herself thinking about the endless possibilities a lot. She knew it was a fine line to walk if they ever did become an item. She tried to stop herself from thinking about him, but it was too hard. A majority of what she did at work was think about his charming smile, his funny jokes, his wonderful personality, and his body that seemed to be carved by the Greek gods. His mere presence was overwhelming.

She did a good job at pretending he didn't affect her like that. He knew that he was hot stuff, but JJ didn't let herself remind him of it. She was polite at work, she said thank you when he walked her to her car, but she had a hard time controlling herself when he wasn't looking. One time she found herself smelling him when he was busy reading a case file.

It was then that she realized that she couldn't fool herself anymore. JJ wanted to be with Derek, and she had just the plan that might make him realize that he feels the same way.

The last week had been rough for Derek. On one hand, he didn't want to seem desperate, but on the other hand he really wanted to spend more time with JJ. He couldn't deny that he liked her, but he didn't want to mess up their friendship.

He planned on asking her out on a real date. He knew that moving too fast could mess up their friendship, but not spending time with her was killing him. It was so hard to control his thoughts at work. He couldn't even joke with Garcia anymore because every flirty thing that he said to her he wished he could say to JJ.

He had officially decided he would ask her out again. He walked into work much like he did the last time, only this time he was even more nervous. He wouldn't let her know that though, he would be smooth and confident. He was going to take her to a cute little Italian dinner at a nice restaurant he knew of.

Morgan thought about doing something else too, but decided that it was too soon. They were still just friends-friends that went on dates.

JJ had known that Agent Rick Daniels had liked her for years. He was nice, good-looking, and tall, but he was very dumb. Unfortunately for him, intelligence was a very important quality to JJ. Rick sent her flowers on Valentine's Day, left chocolate for her on her birthday, and even wrote her a poem one time-which he had taped to the screen in the briefing room so that everyone could read it. She still got loads of crap about that from the team.

She had never acknowledged that she had gotten any of Rick's "surprises"; she had never even talked to him, but she needed him for her plan. JJ turned on her most charming self and walked towards his desk.

Agent Rick looked up in amazement as he watched the lovely Agent Jennifer Jareau walk towards his desk. Her blue eyes locked to his and her golden hair in loose waves-she looked stunning.

She wore a pencil skirt that only went to her knees with a slit in the side that came up mid-thigh. Her blouse was red and fit to her body with a lower cut than she usually wore. It was all he could do to not moan as she came and sat on his desk, exposing a little more of her thigh in the process.

"Hey there, stud," the blonde said in her sexiest voice.

Rick whimpered a 'hello' as he broke into a sweat.

_Get a hold on yourself! She's going to ignore you again if your start sweating all over her. _

"So I just wanted to say thanks for all of those special surprises you've given me. They were really sweet." And as the girl of his dreams leaned forward to kiss him, Agent Daniels saw a hurt and furious-looking Derek Morgan watching from across the room.

Derek got off of the elevator just in time to see JJ and Agent Rick Daniels kissing. Emotions swelled up inside of him so hard and fast that he felt like a thirteen year old girl on her period. He wanted to yell. He wanted to cry. He wanted to run away. Most of all, he wanted to hit the man kissing JJ in the face.

He did.

"Derek! What are you doing?" JJ screamed. "He didn't do anything to you! You can't just come up and hit him in the face!"

"He kissed you!"

"No, Derek. I kissed him. He's sweet and nice and he's gotten me lots of nice things and I just wanted to say thank you because I never have before!" JJ yelled.

This isn't what was supposed to happen. She just thought that if Morgan saw her with Rick he would realize that she would move on if he didn't ask her out again.

"That's how you thank people that you don't know, JJ? By kissing them?" he was really close to her face now, talking quietly, but everyone could hear. "Then you two deserve each other because you're both stupid."

JJ looked like she was going to cry. Her pain was evident on her face. She had never shown emotion like that before. Morgan instantly felt awful, but before he could do anything-

"Derek."

Everyone turned to see Hotch standing on the upper deck of the bullpen. He looked undeniably pissed.

"Office. Now."

Morgan followed Hotch without hesitation. He knew that he could get fired. With each step he took he got more and more nervous. The BAU was his whole life. His team was his family. If Hotch fired him he would never be able to see Garcia, Rossi, Hotch, Prentiss, Reid…or JJ. She was etched into his heart too deeply now. He needed to fight for her. He needed to show her his feelings for her. He needed to apologize. He could do none of that if he was fired though.

"Hotch-"

Hotch slammed the door shut, cutting Derek off.

"Do you realize what you just did? You punched a federal agent! He did nothing to prompt your actions. I should fire you."

Derek winced at the thought. He hesitated before answering his boss. How could he make this seem less awful without telling Hotch that JJ was kissing said agent, and he punched him because he was jealous. He couldn't do it.

"Hotch I had my reasons for hitting Rick, but I can't talk about them right now. It's too personal. I'll take whatever punishments you have for me, but please don't fire me."

"Morgan, you punched an agent in the face and yelled and insulted a team member. I've never seen you act this way. I don't know what my other options are. You won't even tell me why you did it. I'll have to talk to Strauss. Until then I suggest you keep your mouth shut and work on some case files." Hotch opened the door, signaling that it was time to leave.

"Thank you, sir. I'll work on my files after I apologize to Agent Daniels."

Morgan knew he was lucky that Hotch didn't just fire him right there. He was definitely going to have to apologize to Rick and JJ. He would talk to Rick right then, but he needed to prepare for JJ's apology. It needed to be sincere and meaningful. She needed to know why he did what he did. I had to be special.

**Alright there you go! Once again, I'm sorry this took so long. I'm trying to be better. It's been rainy here so I've had more time to work on this story. PLEASE review! It's so great to see what you guys have to say! Alright! **

***Also, JJ never mentions her sister's name right? The one that committed suicide. I need it for another short story I will be working on. If anyone knows please tell me! Thanks! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: okay first of all…WHAT THE HELL DOES CBS THINK THEY ARE DOING THROWING JJ OFF THE SHOW! I'm disgusted. That's just…ridiculous. I don't even know what to say about it. I'm not going to be able to watch Criminal Minds anymore without her. She makes the show fantastic for so many people. And guess who my second favorite character is? Yup, Prentiss. Okay that's kind of a lie. JJ is my favorite, then all of the rest of the cast is second place. I like all of them, but seriously? Cut the freaking spin-off. I could go on for three more chapters about this, but I'll stop myself there. Oh my gosh. Ok. Sign the petition!**

**Also, I'm very sorry that this took so long. Every time I get on the computer I end up watching "Higher Ground" (with AJ Cook). It's so fantastic! Anyways, I've been all over the place lately, but I'm trying to really focus and keep this going because I personally like it and I want to see where it goes too! Ha! Thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming!**

Chapter 4

Morgan walked over to Agent Daniels' desk ready to apologize. When Rick saw him he stumbled back in surprise, clearly afraid that Derek would hit him again. Once he got control of himself he huffed.

"Oh. It's you."

"Yes, it's me. Listen man, I'm really sorry that I punched you. That was completely out of line. I just thought that you were forcing yourself onto her or something because I've never seen you guys together. Like I said, I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding, and if you need anything I'm here to help," Morgan ended, rather pleased with himself.

Rick looked slightly shocked, but shook it off. "Yeah, alright. Accidents happen. Do you think that next time you could refrain from touching my nose? It's already been broken three times."

Derek rolled his eyes and laughed. "There won't be a next time, bud. I promise."

"Haha. Okay. Thanks for apologizing. I can't say I'm not scared of you anymore, but I think that I can get over it soon enough."

"Alright. I'll catch you later, man. Good lookin' out," Morgan said as he turned and walked away.

_That was easy enough. Now I have to find a way to apologize to JJ. She must hate me. I called her stupid. I haven't called someone stupid since fourth grade. It is childish remark, but a mean one nonetheless. _

When Derek had called JJ 'stupid', he insinuated more than just "a dumb person". He spat it out. She could hear what he really meant behind his elementary remark- whore. That word is a little excessive in this case. Just because she kissed random guys to make Derek jealous, or to thank them for presents, doesn't make her a whore. She didn't sleep with him or anything.

All JJ knew was that she hated Derek Morgan. What he said may have been immature and childish, but his words really hurt her. JJ was sick of his bullshit. If he was gonna get so mad about her kissing Rick then he should have at least had a good reason for punching him and insulting her. He obviously didn't like her if he thought she was stupid, so why did her kissing Agent Daniels bother him so much? She decided he was through with his games. She wouldn't talk to him anymore.

Once JJ had finished her workload for the night, she was eager to get out of her office and take a nice hot bath at home. She needed something to rid her mind of the events of the day. A bath and some Raspberry Vodka sounded like a good plan. As she walked out of her office, JJ saw Derek getting up to leave as well. She needed a plan to avoid coming in contact with him on her departure.

She tried to go the "walk fast and don't look at him" approach, but realized too late that he would beat her to the elevator. Needless to say, when he got on the elevator that JJ was going to go on, she was fuming. She was almost there when he stepped through the elevator doors, so she couldn't turn around and run the other way. That would be immature.

She took a deep breath and stepped in next to Derek. She could see him watching her. She expected him to start yelling at her again, or give her evil looks, but he did neither. He looked sad. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't get it out. JJ tried to keep her eyes straight ahead. She would be ready to bolt as soon as the doors opened, but they were on a high floor, and it was a long way down.

Derek watched in surprise as JJ stepped in the elevator next to him. He didn't see her coming down to leave. She looked pissed. He couldn't blame her. He had treated her awful that morning. He hadn't planned what he was going to say yet, so he didn't want to jump the gun and say something stupid. He looked at her. He saw her tapping her toe and drumming her fingers on her hip. He watched as she sighed and leaned her head back. He could feel her eyes taking quick glances at him when he wasn't looking.

He felt like such an ass. He wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn't find the words. He had already decided that his apology had to be special, and saying a quick sorry in the elevator wasn't special. He kept his mouth shut, and prayed that God would help her forgive him.

The elevator doors couldn't open soon enough. Both JJ and Derek wanted to just disappear on the spot right then, but unfortunately neither was a magician. When the doors opened JJ practically through herself out of the elevator and Morgan wasn't far behind her. He thought about grabbing her arm and winging his apology but decided against it.

_She is probably even more pissed at me now since I didn't apologize in the elevator. I need to come up with something really good to make her like me again. I'll have a plan by tomorrow. Tonight I need to start planning and get a good night's sleep, because tomorrow will be a challenge. _

Derek walked into his apartment and sat down on his couch. He begged his brain to come up with the perfect apology, but he came up blank. He just sat on his couch and kept thinking, but his mind kept wondering. He started thinking about what it would be like if him and JJ were a couple. He thought about the dates he would take her on. He thought about holding her hand and giving her hugs. He thought about kissing her. The only thing he didn't think enough about before he fell asleep was how he was going to apologize.

The next morning Derek woke up late, and he had to rush through his morning routine in order to get to work on time. He almost forgot about everything that happened the previous day with JJ and Rick. It wasn't until he was in his car on the way to the office that he realized he was screwed. He wanted to have a whole long speech planned out and maybe even some flowers or something, but instead he was just going to have to make it up on the spot and hope that she could find it in herself to forgive him.

When he walked into the BAU he saw that nobody was really there yet. He must've not been running as late as he thought. As usually, JJ was already there, up in her office. Derek took a deep breath and walked towards her office. He was even more nervous than when he thought Hotch was going to fire him. He slowly lifted his hand to her door and made two solid knocks on the wood.

"Come in," JJ said, clearly distracted by case files that needed attention.

Derek walked into the room and cleared his throat. JJ looked up and rolled her eyes when she saw that it was him. "What do you want Derek?"

"JJ, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have punched Rick, and I shouldn't have yelled at you. I guess I was just surprised that you were so desperate that you would –"

"Excuse me? Desperate? Is this what you call an apology Agent Morgan? Get the hell out of my office! Don't talk to me!" JJ yelled, her eyes flashing anger. If only looks could kill.

"I didn't mean it like that….I just, I just don't understand why you would kiss him. He's not your type at all…"

"What exactly is my type, Derek? Why the hell do you care who I kiss? You obviously don't like me like that, so why does it matter how I say thank you to my friends? Just back off!" she got out of her chair and opened the door in order for him to leave. Derek wasn't ready to leave though.

"JJ, I-"

"Just leave me alone, Derek!" and with that she pushed him out of her office and slammed the door.

Derek turned away from JJ's door to see the team watching him carefully. They all had curious looks on their faces. Of course they knew what had happened preceding day, but they didn't understand Derek and JJ's relationship. Hotch stood outside his office with another disappointed look on his face. He nodded his head and Derek knew that he needed to go talk to Hotch in his office.

Derek slumped down in the chair ready for a lecture.

"Morgan, I need to know that keeping you on this team is the right choice. I can't have you causing problems with other team members every day. I'm assuming this has to do with what happened yesterday. Do you want to tell me what made you punch and insult your co-workers?" Hotch asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Hotch I know this looks really bad, but I just can't talk about it right now. I apologized to Daniels yesterday. This morning I was trying to apologize to JJ, but it obviously didn't go very well. I'm sorry. I won't cause any more problems at work," Derek finished.

"Alright, I trust you. I talked to Strauss last night. We've decided that you may keep your position on this team, but you are suspended for three weeks. You will be here doing office work during that period, and I want you and JJ to work out whatever it is you need to. I do not want my team split into sides over whatever is happening in your personal lives."

"Thank you, sir. I will do my best," Derek stood up and made his way to the door.

"Derek."

"Yeah, Hotch?"

"Don't mess up again."

"I don't plan on it, sir. Thank you." Derek walked out of the office with mixed emotions. He was very relieved to know that he wasn't going to be fired, but he was really nervous about apologizing to JJ again. She seemed like she had made up her mind, and it did not include forgiving him.

Morgan knew that he still had to apologize to JJ, but he just couldn't find a right time or a way to do it. It had been a week since the incident. Derek hadn't seen JJ talking to Rick since the kiss, and she hadn't talked to him since she kicked him out of her office. The team (besides Derek) had gone on two cases since Derek had been suspended, leaving not much time for him to see JJ anyways.

She completely ignored him. When they had to be in the same room, JJ didn't even look in his direction. Derek hated it. He missed her so much. He knew that they had only been real friends for a short time, but what they had had been special. He missed talking to her. He missed seeing her smile at him. He missed walking her to her car. He missed seeing her let loose. He missed her.

He had to fix it. He had a plan.

***Okay, so once again I'm super sorry that this took so long. I don't know if I like this chapter very much, but I wanted to get something up and I had already spent a lot of time thinking about it. So please REVIEW to keep me going :) **

**Once again, SIGN THE PETITION!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author' Note: Alright so I'm just jumping right into it! I'm thinking about writing this story a lot, it's more of the actual getting of the computer and typing it that's the problem right now…so I'll try to work on that :) As always, please review!**

**Disclaimer: I always forget this- I do not own Criminal Minds, or JJ, or Morgan, or anyone else on the team…unfortunately. If I did this show would be wayyyy more scandalous! :)**

Chapter 5

JJ had finally stopped thinking about Derek every second of every day; it was more of every minute of every day now. She avoided him at work as much as possible. It had been a week since Morgan's attempt at an apology, and JJ was still furious with him, but she couldn't deny that she missed him a lot.

Work was torture now, especially on the new case. They would be cramped in the building together, or in the briefing room. She could always feel Derek watching her whenever he thought she wouldn't notice, but he kept his distance. He seemed to sense that staying away from her was the right thing to do at the time.

Hotch gave up on suspending Morgan. Derek had been doing so much paperwork in the office that there was barely any more to be done. The team needed him on the case because it was an obsessional crime- Morgan's specialty. Hotch decided that as long as Derek kept his behavior in check, he would allow Morgan to go on cases with them. It was kind of like probation.

Hotch had been nice and not sent JJ and Morgan anywhere alone together, but they were always drawn to each other. Neither of them would admit it, but they tried to stay around each other as much as possible. It was an unconscious move, but they didn't try too hard to fight it.

Derek had spent every spare moment his mind had thinking about putting his plan to action. He couldn't do it at work, so he needed to find a way to be alone with her. The hard part of planning was already over. He knew what he would do once he got her alone. He knew what he was going to say. It was just getting the ball rolling that was the problem now.

While everyone else was asleep on the plane, Derek stayed awake just watching JJ. She was so beautiful. Her face held the smallest of smiles while she slept, something you wouldn't notice unless you watched carefully. Her hair was pooled around her face. She gripped her blanket as if it were a teddy bear. It was hard to believe that this was the same Jennifer Jareau that yelled at him for punching Rick, or tearing up when he called her stupid.

_God, I'm such a moron! Why the hell did I say that? It was so childish and immature and…ugh. This apology needs to be the king of all apologies. I like her, and I know she liked me. That's probably why she got so upset. She has to realize that I was jealous. Even if I didn't say it out loud, she has to know that I overreacted because I care about her. What if she doesn't know that? What if that's why she got so upset? Because she thought that I liked her, but then I did that and called her stupid- insinuating something else- and then she thought that I never liked her and was just being an ass. I have to show her that I like her. I have to show her how I feel. I have to show her that I'm falling for her- correction: I have fallen for her. _

Derek suddenly knew exactly how he would approach his apology. A small smiled played across his lips as he leaned back in his chair and continued watching JJ sleep peacefully.

It was six in the morning by the time their flight got back to Virginia. The team got the day to catch up on their sleep and be ready for the next case they would be leaving for the next day. Derek knew that he had to act on his plan tonight, or he would have to wait through a whole other case.

"Hello?" a disheveled Penelope Garcia croaked into her cell phone.

"Hey baby girl it's Derek."

"Morgan, its 6:30 in the morning. Please don't tell me we have another case already."

"No sunshine, I need your help with something," Derek said, as he paced around his room. He wouldn't be able to sleep until he knew everything was set up.

"Can't this wait until morning? I can't even think of any witty remarks to make during our conversation at this hour," Garcia begged.

"It is morning, beautiful. I know this is an ungodly hour, but I really need you to call JJ and make plans with her tonight. She shouldn't be asleep yet since our plane just landed fifteen minutes ago."

"Derek, I already have plans for tonight. As much as I would love to, I can't hang out with JJ."

"That's okay baby girl. I just want to make sure JJ doesn't make plans with anyone else. I want to apologize to her tonight. I just need her to be at her house so I don't show up looking like a fool if she's gone or already has someone over," Morgan explained.

"So you want me to make plans with her so that you can make sure she's free for you to show up at her house unexpectedly? So you can apologize? I don't need to be there at all?" Garcia asked, becoming more interested in the situation despite the hour of the morning.

"Nah, you can do whatever you have planned for tonight. Just tell her that you'll be at her place by 8:30 tonight. Call her soon before she falls asleep, and you only need to call me back if that doesn't work out for her. Otherwise you're free to continue with your beauty sleep," Morgan answered. He was so happy that he was so close to Garcia, and that Garcia was so close to JJ.

"Alright, I better get one hell of a thank you kiss for this Agent Morgan because this is a lot to ask of someone at 6 in the morning."

"It's 6:30 baby girl. Thanks. I do owe you one," and with that Derek hung up his phone and fell back onto his king size bed, finally able to sleep since she saw JJ and Daniels kissing.

JJ woke up at four in the afternoon. The case they had just gotten back from was a rough one. They barely slept during cases anyways, but when the murders involved children they shouldn't even bother booking a hotel to stay in since they didn't even go there. Needless to say, JJ was passed out on the plane and would have passed out right when she got home, except for Garcia called her and asked to hang out with her that night. JJ didn't understand why Garcia didn't just wait until later to call, but agreed nonetheless.

Garcia was going to show up for a chick flick movie night at 8:30. They would only end up watching one movie since they had work the next day, but it was still fun. After making their plans, JJ fell onto her bed and slept for 10 hours without even changing her clothes.

When she woke up, JJ went straight for the shower. She finished that quickly and started on some "breakfast". It's never too late for toast and eggs. Regardless of all her sleep, she was still tired. The case had really gotten to her, and on top of that she was always thinking about Derek. Her mind was on overdrive.

She just wanted everything to go back to how it was before. She wished she had never kissed Rick. Now he just kept trying to talk to her. She had received three more presents from him, but didn't tell anybody about them. He even asked her on a date, which she politely declined. Everything backfired.

She thought about talking to Morgan again, but she was still pissed at him. _Is it possible to hate someone that you like a lot?_

She continued getting ready for the night and went so far as to put on some pajamas and get the popcorn ready. It was going to be a real girl's night, like in the movies. She needed to get her mind off of Derek, and Penelope is an expert at cheering people up.

JJ hadn't told Garcia what had happened between her and Morgan. There was never really enough time at work, and she and Derek had decided to keep it between them for the time being. She planned on telling her during the movie, so that they could bitch about him for a good two hours before it was time for bed. Girls never really grow out of the boy talk phase.

It was 8:45 and Garcia still hadn't showed up. JJ tried calling her, but she never answered. JJ was starting to get really annoyed. She needed her friend that night. Hell, Garcia had called her at 6:30 in the morning asking for them to have this girl's night. Why would she just not show up without an explanation?

JJ tried to push the image of Garcia being shot out of her mind. That would be a reasonable explanation, but it wouldn't happen again. The psycho that tried to kill her was dead, JJ had shot him herself. She couldn't think things like that.

At 8:50 JJ heard her doorbell ring.

"Finally! I was beginning to think you ditched-"JJ realized that it wasn't Garcia standing in the doorway. "Derek I can't do this right now, I have plans tonight."

She tried to close the door, but Morgan stopped it with his foot. He slowly pushed the door back open, and it was then that JJ took in his appearance.

He was wearing a white, button-down dress shirt with a solid black tie and black dress pants. He had a dozen pink roses behind his back, and he wore a look of determination. He was absolutely gorgeous.

"JJ, I had a whole speech planned out of what I was going to say, but I honestly can't remember a single word of it. All I can say is that I'm sorry. I miss you, and I think…I think I love you. I thought this only happened in cheesy romance movies, but I can't deny my feelings for you anymore. I love you, JJ."

Morgan didn't even know it until he said it right then, but he knew that he was telling the truth. He loved her. He took a step towards her. He looked deep into her eyes. He saw the uncertainty there. She didn't know if she believed him, but he took another step closer.

JJ didn't know what to say. She just stood there as he came closer and closer to her. She wanted to believe him, but it didn't make sense. She was still trying o sort it out through her mind when she felt Morgan put his hand against her cheek. He put a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and then he leaned down to kiss her.

JJ tried to resist at first, but Morgan only pulled a fraction of an inch away. She knew she wanted this to happen. She leaned her head back up and brushed her lips against his. That was all the permission Derek needed.

He started kissing her, really kissing her. Their lips matched together perfectly. It was if this was meant to happen. Only when the need for oxygen became too great did they finally pull apart.

"I love you too, Derek."

***Well there you go! I think I like this! I didn't want to rush anything, but I feel like this is what needed to happen. I know love can take a long time to form, but I think that it had been forming for a really long time; they just didn't know it :) please review! The next chapter should be out very soon…possibly even later today. It will pick up right where this one left off. I'm going for the dramatic suspenseful affect. Haha. **

**Thanks for REVIEWING! It's right below this :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Well hey there guys. I must say I much appreciate the two reviews I got for the last chapter, but only two? Come on! That was a good one! Haha. Well I guess I'll just have to keep going and hope more people review this chapter…*hint hint* Alright I'm done :)**

**Disclaimer: I simply don't own Criminal Minds; if I did then FREAKIN JJ WOULDN'T BE GETTING KICKED OFF! (Sorry I just had a moment). **

Chapter 6

"I love you too, Derek."

Derek could see the tears swelling up inside JJ's eyes. He could almost feel tears coming as well, but opted to leaned down and kiss her again instead of letting her see him tear up from happiness.

The kiss started sweet and sensual, but soon turned hot and passionate. Morgan locked his fingers in JJ's golden hair. He couldn't get enough of her. He pushed her up against the closed door and kissed her lips, trailing down her jaw and neck.

JJ didn't understand what happened, but before she knew it she was kissing Derek Morgan. She had practically asked him to. She had resisted at first, but realized she couldn't fool herself into thinking that she didn't want to.

He had lifted her up and carried her to the couch, still kissing her. It seemed unreal. A month ago JJ and Derek had just been your average co-workers. They were friends, but not outside the office. Now they were in love. It all happened so fast. It didn't seem possible.

JJ willed herself to pull away for a second.

"Garcia is supposed to be here anytime now, Derek. She can't see this."

"She isn't coming. I'm the one that made plans with you tonight. I just did it through Garcia," Morgan answered smugly.

"Oh, that's why she called so late- or early I guess. So….she knows about us?" JJ questioned.

"Well she knows that I liked you and that I wanted to apologize. I didn't realize that I love you until I said it. I finally let myself believe it, and I hope you do too. I love you, JJ. It feels so good to say out loud! I love you! I love you! I love you! Derek Morgan is actually in love, and it is with Jennifer Jareau!"

JJ blushed at his words. Words couldn't describe her happiness, but there was still a part of her that was resistant. It was happening so fast, and JJ had always run from getting hurt. Derek would be able to hurt her now. If something happened between them it could mess up her life, and not to mention her job.

She needed time to think about things. Being with him was so easy, like breathing. They meshed so well together. She knew something had changed when they danced together at the bar. She felt that spark that only happens when you're with someone special, but she didn't think it would turn into this.

"Derek, I'm so happy to hear you say that, but how can this work? We aren't allowed to be together. It's against the rules of the BAU. What if…what if things don't work out and…and I don't know...we can't be around each other. Then we'll have to quit and-"

Derek put a finger to her lips.

"The only thing that matters right now is you. I'm crazy about you, JJ. When we were kissing I felt something so…magical. I know it's cheesy, but it's true. I felt like nothing else in the world mattered but you, but us. Tell me, did you feel it too?" Derek said while he grabbed her hands from her lap.

"Well, yeah I felt that way too, but-"

"No buts. We can't change how we feel. We can keep this between us for a while until we figure everything out. I don't want to plan too far into the future, this is just too new. All I know is that I can't take another say of just watching you from my desk, wishing that I could hug you and hold you. Wishing that I could touch your face and hold your hand. Wishing that I could do this any time that I want…"

Derek leaned his head in and once again covered JJ's lips with his own. It was a slow kiss, beautiful. Perfect.

***Okay, so I know that chapter was super short, but I really feel like it needed to end there. I promise the next one will be longer, and I will add it soon! Please let me know how I did on the love stuff. I have this vision in my head, like a movie, of how it would look, but it's hard to get it out there, you know? **

****I'm disgusted. She is officially off the show. FUUUUUUCk!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Hey guys! So now that they know that they love each other, I was kind of not really knowing where I wanted to go with this. I think I'm going to make it shorter than I originally planned, but don't worry! I think a sequel will happen eventually. I'm pretty sure I can't write more than one story at a time, and I want to start on another one of my ideas. I think this story is going to be strictly JJ and Morgan being all cute and such, and the sequel will be more climactic :) So enjoy. Don't worry, this isn't the last chapter! And thanks for the reviews! They were spectacular!**

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned this show, but I don't. CBS is being stupid and I hate them right now.**

Chapter 7

To say that JJ and Morgan were not discrete would be an understatement. The two had decided that they would wait to tell the team about their romance for the time being, but they were not very good at concealing their love. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea how obvious they were being.

It had been three days since Morgan had showed up at JJ's doorstep begging for forgiveness. The next day at the office was a little awkward for the two agents. Their feelings were so new and foreign to them, they didn't even know how to act around each other in front of the team. The blonde did her best to stay in her office as much as possible in an effort to not get distracted by her newfound love.

After getting through the first day, Derek decided that he couldn't just sit at his desk all day, knowing that JJ was just on the other side of her door. On the second day, he frequently made excuses to go visit JJ in her office.

More than once did Morgan sweep JJ off her feet and make her forget all about her work. They snuck around like young teenagers that weren't allowed to date. JJ would pretend to go to the bathroom, but would instead meet Derek in the supply closet. They would spend some time in there. It was a scandalous situation that the BAU never thought they would see. Of course, they didn't know it was happening, but it was a good story for JJ and Morgan nonetheless.

JJ knew that their sneaking around was childish, but she was secretly thrilled every time she met up with Derek. It was completely unprofessional, but JJ had been so uptight since she started working for the BAU. She didn't realize how much she loved being fun and rebellious. They weren't hurting anybody; they were just kissing in the mop closet.

The team had their suspicions about Derek and JJ. They were profilers after all, but they had no idea to what extent. Garcia had questioned Morgan about his visit to JJ's house, but he just said that it went fine. Naturally she tried to further inquire, but he never gave her any answers. He wasn't ready for anybody else on the team to know yet, and neither was JJ.

It was in the briefing room before a case that the team really caught on to the secret lovers. When JJ had called the team for the briefing Morgan was the first to enter the room. He came up behind JJ and placed his hand on her shoulder and let it trail down her back. His touch startled her at first, but she gave him a small smile as she stepped a bit closer to him. They were standing with JJ's shoulder in Derek's chest when Reid walked in and saw them. He cleared his throat and the two agents hastily stepped away from each other. Reid didn't read too much into it at first. He figured Morgan was just trying to see the pictures that JJ was organizing on the table.

After the briefing, while JJ was packing up, Morgan came over to her again after everyone had left. She turned to see him standing right behind her again. He pushed the hair going down her neck over her shoulder and leaned his head into her neck. They knew it was unprofessional, and they knew that at any moment they could be caught, but at that moment, the blonde liaison was the only person Derek was thinking about.

Rossi and Hotch were walking to Hotch's office when they saw Derek and JJ alone in the briefing room when they were supposed to be getting ready. Morgan was standing very close to her, and he had his hand on her back. The two superiors had just missed Derek with his face in JJ's neck, but they didn't miss the way the young agent looked at the blonde. They couldn't dwell on it too long though; they had a plane to catch.

JJ knew that the team was going to catch on to her romance if they weren't careful. She wasn't ashamed of Morgan, Lord knows no woman would be, but she couldn't face telling the team about their relationship. Fraternization was against the rules for the members of the BAU. Her job was important to her, she didn't want to lose it, or get in trouble. She had let Derek go too far in the briefing room. She understood that it was hard to concentrate on a case when they were so close at work, but they both needed to focus. People were dying, and it was their job to stop it. They couldn't continue with what they were doing- the sneaking around, the secret meetings, him kissing her neck while they were both on the clock.

JJ decided that she would subtly try to peel herself away from Morgan while they were on this case. She didn't want it to be obvious to the team that there was something going on, but she also didn't want to be obvious to Derek that she wanted space while they were at work. He may be able to play it cool after they made out in the utility closet, but she couldn't. Her face was flushed, she was all smiley, and she just seemed a different person. It could only get worse being in such small quarters with Morgan and the team. She needed to change something.

Morgan, on the other hand, was at the opposite end of the spectrum. He was about ready to go tell Hotch himself that he loved JJ, and that he wanted their relationship to be an open, honest one. He wanted to tell his BAU family about his love life. He wanted JJ to want to tell people, but she wasn't ready yet. She made it clear when they were in the briefing room alone that he needed to control himself because she wasn't ready for other people to know. She hadn't even told Emily or Garcia about them.

Derek made his way to a sleeping JJ in the back of the plane. The men were always generous about letting the females sleep on the couch, but Emily wasn't much of a sleeper on the jet, so JJ usually got to have the most comfortable sleeping spot. Other than Prentiss and Hotch, who were talking about the case at the front of the plane, the whole team was asleep. Morgan quietly sat down on the end of the couch and gently shook JJ's leg.

"JJ, baby, can you wake up for me? I want to talk before we get there," he whispered, feeling kind of bad for waking his sleeping co-worker.

JJ stirred for a second before she realized where she was and opened her eyes.

"Yeah, what's up?" she asked as she sat up and wiped her eyes. Usually they would wait until later in the day to leave for a case, but this one was far away, so they left at four in the morning, thus everyone was very tired.

"I was just thinking about how and when we should tell the team. I mean I don't want to rush anything, but it's only been a few days, and we're already having trouble keeping it a secret. I would rather tell them straight up than have them catch us doing something inappropriate."

"I want to wait, Derek; at least until after this case. We can control ourselves until then, right?" Morgan didn't miss the hint of accusation in her voice, but she smiled, so he knew she wasn't upset with him for anything that happened between them.

"I guess so, but after this case you are all mine. We will make a plan as to how we are going to tell the team, and then we will tell them, and they will be okay with it. Now go back to sleep, lovely. I'll wake you when we get there," and with that Derek walked back to his seat.

JJ was happy relieved to hear that Morgan didn't think it would be a problem with the team, and she loved the way he laid down the law. He could be so romantic and cute, yet he could flip a switch to breaking down doors and taking down bad guys.

_He is so perfect. I love the way he treats me. I love the way he holds me, kisses me, and talks to me. He's gorgeous. He's strong. He's smart. And he loves me just the way I am. Gosh, I'm grossing myself out. I'm not usually one to swoon, but he's brought out so many sides of me I didn't even know existed. _

They landed in California at about eight in the morning. The team got straight to work on catching the creep of the day. JJ gave two press conferences before noon. One was because the unsub had killed another person during the night, and the other was to give the part of the profile that they had figured out. They needed to do something about this guy quick because he was killing fast.

By three in the afternoon the team got a lead. Someone saw a man in a dark green pick-up truck that fit the profile. He was in his thirties, white, and looked really freaked out. The profile said that he would act skittish and scared, but still have enough cool to hold a conversation.

The man was killing randomly. He seemed to have suffered a nervous breakdown and just started shooting people off a couple days before. He had calmed down for a day to regain his composure, and then he began killing again, this time more discreetly. Although he was smart enough to cover up his wrong-doings, the man was by no means intelligent. Before he would shoot people walking down the street or mowing their lawn from his truck, but now he was starting to shoot people through their windows. He was spiraling downwards fast and the BAU was just one step behind.

Another tip came in a couple hours later saying that they think they saw the green truck at a local restaurant, and the man that drove it was obviously struggling. He had out-played the crime fighters longer than he should have been able to, and now he would finally be brought to justice.

The team, plus a dozen or so cops, pulled into the restaurant parking lot with their sirens blaring. The SWAT team ran in first and everyone could immediately tell who the killer was. Civilians close to the door were ordered to leave, but the rest of the restaurant population was stuck for the time being.

Garcia had worked her magic and found out that the man's name was Paul Tyson. He was 37 years old, and his wife was recently shot and killed while she was on vacation with some friends.

"Paul Tyson!" Morgan yelled.

Paul slowly turned around, a smiled creeped onto his face. He grabbed a teenage girl from the table next to him and held a gun to her head. All police force tensed at their sticky situation. They couldn't shoot the bastard because that would put the girl in even more danger.

Hotch stepped forward and lowered his weapon.

"Paul, I know that you don't want to hurt that young girl. You want to hurt whoever murdered your wife, but you can't. It was a gang. They were put in jail. You can't take out your emotional pain on innocent people."

"Debbie was innocent!" Paul shouted. He tightened his grip on the girl, but Hotch could tell that he didn't want to hurt any more people.

"You're right. Debbie was innocent. But it isn't fair of you to take someone else's family or friend away from them just because that's what happened to you," Hotch pleaded.

Paul didn't know what to do. Everything that they said was right and he knew it. He didn't want to hurt anyone else. He just wanted it all to stop. He wanted his life to stop.

Hotch could practically read the man's conflicted mind. "Paul I know what you're thinking and that isn't the way to deal with this either. Put your gun down and your hands in the air right now."

Prentiss had come in through the back door and was watching the proceedings from behind Paul. He didn't know she was there. Paul hesitated for a moment and Emily took her chance. She grabbed the gun out of his hand from behind and pushed him to the ground.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you in the court of law," Prentiss recited. She led him out to the police car with the rest of the team following close behind.

It was 10:30 pm by the time the team got back to the hotel. They had scheduled out three days to solve this case, so they had another two days to enjoy all California had to offer. They were only an hour away from LA by jet. The next day they would go to the big city for some well-deserved fun.

***Okay, so I know they don't schedule out time for cases, but I needed an excuse to keep them in CA for a little bit :) This chapter was kind of a filler. Also, I've already warned you guys about this, but I'm not a profiler and I'm not serial killer savvy, so I apologize if some of the case seemed dumb or didn't really make sense. I'm trying really hard, but I just don't know if my efforts are realistic. I think I will continue to keep the killers to a minimum in this story! I'm sorry it took me so long to get up. I had to really think about where I wanted to go with this story, so it took me a while to write in the right stuff! Please review! Love it, hate it? Let me know! Thanks!**

**** The next chapter will be scandalous so don't miss out! I've finally got a good set-up for some real juicy stuff that we've all been waiting for. And once again, please please please review! Alright, I'm done :) **


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Hey there! So someone tried to steal my identity and we had to shut off the internet, which is why I haven't been able to update. I'm uploading this from my friend's computer right now! I don't know when my internet will be back up, buuuuut since Word doesn't need internet I can still write! Anyways, I really appreciate the reviews I'm getting, but I only got three the last chapter! I guess it was just a filler, but don't be shy to tell me how AWESOME this story is…or isn't. I hope this chapter is juicy! We'll see :) **

**Chapter 8**

JJ and Morgan didn't say more than a few sentences to each other throughout the entire case. The job still came first for Derek, but JJ was making her way to the top of his priorities. He didn't know why she did this to him. She could hit him in the balls and spit in his face and he would still be head over heels in love with her. He hoped she felt the same way. She had seemed a little cold on the plane. He understood why she didn't want anyone to know about them yet, but he thought that if he said he wanted them to know, then she would agree, but she didn't.

They had had a good few days before they came on this case. They would sneak around and meet up, but she seemed to regret doing those things. She was different now. She barely looked at him. She avoided being alone with him. She just avoided him in general. Derek was a good profiler, but he had never been able to figure her out. She said she loved him, but as soon as they came on this case she started to pull away from him. He didn't understand.

Derek wanted to get his JJ back. He NEEDED to get her back. He was glad that they had another two days in California. He was going to do things right this time. He would treat her like a princess. He would take her on dates and court her, just as any man should court the woman they loved. He had two days to do what a normal boyfriend would be able to do in two months, but they didn't have a job that allowed a normal lifestyle, so Derek had to make the most of the time they still had in Cali.

The members of the BAU could have been mistaken for zombies when they got back to their hotel after the case. Hotch, Morgan, Prentiss, Reid, JJ, and Rossi all walked into the hotel silently and went straight to their respective rooms. Morgan even fell asleep with his clothes on, and Prentiss almost fell asleep in the elevator. Usually the team would be better about handling their tiredness, but as soon as the case was closed up the whole team felt the pressure of the day, and the lack of sleep they had gotten the night before.

Each team member was sound asleep as soon as their head hit the pillow. Before Hotch fell asleep, he was grateful that he hadn't told the team a specific time to meet in the morning. He could see that his agents needed sleep. He was sure that they would all end up meeting around the hotel at ten or eleven, after everyone had caught up on their sleep.

The next morning Hotch, Prentiss, and JJ were all in the hotel lobby by 10 am. The three had never really been able to sleep in too late, and even though they were practically sleepwalking the previous night, this morning would be no exception. Emily and JJ had met in the hallway on their way down, and Hotch was already sipping his coffee in the lounge. The ladies plopped in to the two chairs next to him with their own cups of coffee.

"So when are we going to head out to LA?" Emily asked, not hiding her excitement at all.

"Well I'm going to assume that everyone will be down here by eleven or so, so I was thinking we would leave shortly after that. Are your bags packed? I don't see them down here," Hotch questioned.

Emily assured him that they were, but JJ sighed sheepishly.

"I knew there was something I was going to do before I came down here."

JJ giggled a bit and then made her way back up to her room to pack up her belongings and get ready to leave. She hadn't even brushed her teeth before she came down. She realized that she really should have slept in a little longer.

Just as JJ got onto one elevator, Morgan and Rossi stepped out of the other. Both men looked exceptionally tired, but they both went straight for the coffee, hoping that it would help wake them up.

"Yo, is my baby girl comin' up here Hotch? It's not very fair to make her stay in Quantico while we are all here having a good time," Morgan said as he sat down where JJ had been sitting just moments before.

"The jet will go pick up Penelope after it drops us off in LA. She and Kevin should be here by tonight. I've actually talked to Strauss and convinced her to let us stay in Los Angeles for a couple extra days as long as there are no urgent cases. But considering the people that evaluate and choose the cases are here, I don't think that will be a problem," Hotch explained.

"Jesus Hotch, how long have you been down here?" Morgan asked, and incredulous tone in his voice.

"What he means to say is thank you for working that out with Strauss for us. We all need a break," Rossi said. He raised his eyebrows at Derek as if scolding him with a look.

"Yeah, that's what I was saying…"Morgan chuckled.

"Well, to answer your question, Derek, I've been down here since 9:30. It wasn't too long before JJ and Emily got here, and you guys didn't show up too long after them."

"Wait…JJ was already down here?" Morgan asked.

Emily looked at Derek questioningly.

"Yeah, we came down here together, but she forgot to pack up her bags and stuff, so she went back to her room to pack and get ready for LA."

Morgan seemed irritated, but tried to shrug it off so as to not make the team suspicious. He didn't even know why he was irritated. He just expected her to come to his room in the morning to wake him before she came down.

After a few minutes of mindless chatter, and still no sign of JJ, Morgan excused himself and made his way to her room. The only reason he knew where it was was because he saw her going into his room last night, but she didn't even see him because she was so tired.

JJ was startled by three loud knocks on her door. She rushed to the door and looked through the peephole. It was Derek. She opened the door slowly and immediately felt bad for practically avoiding him the entire time they had been here. His shoulders were slumped and his mouth was turned down in an uncharacteristic pout. JJ could tell that something was wrong, and she knew it could have something to do with the stress of the last case, but deep down she knew it was because of her attitude towards him.

She loved him. There was no doubt about it, but she was afraid that things were moving too fast. She was afraid that once he really got to know her he wouldn't like her as much. JJ didn't want to get hurt. It had happened enough in her lifetime. It seemed like the people closest to her always left and her sister left in the most permanent way possible, and after that JJ's parents started to shut her out. She had lost her family, and after that she couldn't let people get too close to her.

She had never loved anyone the way she loved Derek, and the thought of losing him was too much. Not only was she afraid of him leaving her, but this case made her think of how easily a stranger could just walk up behind him and shoot him in the head, and he would be gone forever. Of course, if that happened to anyone on the team, JJ would be devastated, but if it happened to Derek, she didn't know if she could move on. Those thoughts are the reason she had been pushing him away since they got to California. That is the reason she didn't want to tell the team. She was in too deep already. To care about someone so much when she barely knew him, and then to think about letting it go on and eventually losing him, she couldn't even fathom how that would feel. She didn't want to.

Once they told people it would become real, and if it didn't work out then she would get hurt. She couldn't handle getting hurt anymore. 

"Why didn't you come get me this morning before you went downstairs?" Morgan asked. It shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but that minor move had sent him over the edge. She had brushed him off throughout the whole case, and he thought maybe it was just because she was stressed about all the deaths, but the case was over now, and she was still avoiding him. He was just plain confused.

JJ looked down at her feet.

"I didn't know where your room was. Sorry," It was the truth, but she knew that she could have figured it out if she really wanted to.

"JJ, what's wrong? Talk to me."

Derek lifted his hand up to her face and brushed her blonde hair behind her ear. She tried to look down at her feet again but he put his finger under her chin and lifted it so that she was looking into his eyes.

JJ didn't know what to say. As she looked into his big, brown eyes, she could see so much concern, so much love. She knew he was serious about her, but she was still scared.

"I'm scared, Derek. I'm scared that I'm not really the girl that you love, and once you find that out you'll leave me. I'm scared that I'll let you in, and then you'll shut me out. I'm scared that once we tell the team, this whole thing between us will be real, and then I'll get hurt. I'm scared that this is all a dream, and one day I'll wake up and realize that I was stupid to put myself out there so much, because all it did was get me hurt…"

Derek stepped into JJ's room and closed the door behind him. He led her over the bed and they both sat down.

Tears were slowly crawling down JJ's cheek now. She tried to wipe them away, but Morgan grabbed her hand before it reached her face. He brought it back and opened her palm onto his chest right over his heart.

"JJ this is real. It's not a dream. I don't know why I fell so hard or fast for you, but I did. I may not know everything about you, but there is one thing that I do know, and that is that you love me too. You feel my heartbeat? The only reason it's beating is because of you now."

JJ felt the weight of his words on her heart. She knew he was being completely honest. If he was being honest, then she needed to be honest with and him and herself. She loved him, and no amount of fear could pull her away from him anymore.

Derek moved her hand from his chest up to his face so that she was cupping his cheek. Then he put both hands on either side of her face and gently placed his lips on top of hers. The two had never kissed like this before. It was slow and genuine. Morgan threaded his fingers through her hair while JJ brought her hand back to his chest. She felt his heart beating.

He pulled back to see JJ's eyes still closed and a smile playing on her lips. He was so happy that she told him what was wrong, and had given him the chance to tell her otherwise.

He stood up and pulled her up with him. He grabbed her suitcase and the two FBI agents walked out of her room holding hands and smiling at their opportunity to spend the next couple of days together in LA.

***Alright alright. I know it's cheesy, but hey, I personally enjoy cheesy romance stories! I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I had writer's block, and then like I said, our computer was hacked into. So if anyone knows how to do that….DON'T DO IT! It is a pain in the butt for the people you're hacking! Arg. Anyways…Please review! I like reviews a whole bunch! And if I get lots of reviews…I'll sing you all a song! Haha alright I'm done rambling!**

******NEXT STOP…LOS ANGELESSSSSSSS******

*****Oh wait! One more thing. So I know I enjoy a good JJ/Morgan sex scene, but how do you guys feel about it? I'm trying to decide if I want any smut in this. It won't be very graphic AT ALL, but I think it should maybe still happen. What do you think? Let me know when you REVIEW! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Hey ya'll! Sorry for the insane delay. I still don't have a computer! But I should get it back this weekend. Unfortunately I will not be here at all this weekend. Basically, I've been in Cedar Point all week this week, now I'm going on a retreat, then next week I have very little time to catch up with friends before I work Monday and Tuesday and then I have school orientation, then my exchange student comes to live with me for a whole year! Then I work some more. I will do my best to update as much as possible but I'm not going to make any promises! Anyways, here's the story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds…*sad face***

Chapter 9

JJ and Morgan released each other's hands when they got into the elevator. The team still didn't know about their romance. JJ felt more secure about her relationship with Morgan, but was still reluctant to tell the team.

She just wanted them to enjoy each other without the team asking questions and watching them. She knew they wouldn't let it go the whole trip, so she had a talk with Derek in the elevator.

"Hey, I trust you, and I trust us, but I still don't want the team to know yet. At least until we're back in Quantico where things are normal and they have other things to worry about. I just want this time to enjoy being with you, and I don't want to worry about what they think," JJ explained. It was the honest truth.

"Babe, that's fine with me if that's what you want. We can wait until you're ready. Just don't wait too long. I would rather tell them than have them find out some other way."

She agreed with him. She reached and gave him a quick peck on the lips before the doors opened and they could see the whole team waiting on them. Derek and JJ ignored the quizzical looks they were getting and greeted the members of the BAU for the second time that morning.

"The jet is waiting for us at the airport. Let's load up the vans and hit the road!" Even Hotch couldn't hide his excitement for their vacation, even though he wished his wife could join them.

Rossi, Prentiss and Reid rode in the van that Morgan was driving, whilst leaving JJ and Hotch alone in the other van. The leader of the BAU unintentionally notices everything about his subordinates. He'd had his suspicions about JJ and Derek since the scene in the bullpen. He knew something was going on between them, he just couldn't quite figure out what it was. He figured it was some sort of romance, but didn't understand how or when it happened. The two agents barely had any contact at work. Sure, they were on the same team, but out of all of the team members, they probably were the most distant. The muscle and the blonde very rarely shared any time alone together. Well, that's what he thought anyways.

Fraternization was against Bureau policy, but he couldn't honestly say that he cared as long as it didn't affect their job.

He and JJ were alone in the SUV and he took the opportunity to talk to her about it.

"So, how are things with you and Morgan?" Hotch asked nonchalantly.

The question caught JJ way off guard. Was it really that obvious?

"Um…what do you mean?" she stuttered. It was a weak attempt at playing it cool.

"You two have seemed different around each other lately. At first you were very distant, but now you seem really bonded. Bonded in a way that the rest of our team isn't," Hotch explained. He hoped that putting it that was would draw her out and make her feel more comfortable talking about it with him.

JJ mentally slapped herself.

_How could I be so stupid? Of course I can't hide this from the team. Not only are they all skilled profilers, but they are like my family. Obviously they are going to know if something strange is going on. _

"We're fine," she answered, neither confirming nor denying her boss' theory. She tried to hold on to any dignity and secrecy she had left.

Her superior seemed to get the hint that she wasn't ready to talk about it, because he dropped the subject. The rest of the ride was silent, save for the Tim McGraw that was on the radio.

_Who knew Hotch was a country music guy?_

They arrived at the airport to see the jet ready to go. Even the pilot was in spirit with a purple and blue flower shirt. They boarded the jet and everyone sat down anxiously. Hotch didn't miss the way Morgan went straight to where JJ was sitting. He kept his eye on them throughout the plane ride. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation.

He wished they would just come clean about their relationship or whatever it was. The rest of the team seemed to be oblivious. Rossi probably noticed, but ignored it. Reid probably didn't notice a thing. He wasn't very good at picking up on this sort of thing. Emily probably had other things on her mind.

He wondered of Garcia knew about this. She was pretty close to both of the agents in question, but he didn't think she would be able to keep the secret.

_I don't care if they date, so why am I thinking about it so much? I need to focus on my life and my wife. It's just hard to have the same thoughts about the same person all the time. "I miss Hayley, I miss Hayley, I miss Hayley." I don't want to think about that all the time. Maybe I should get a new hobby though, besides thinking about my team members._

They landed in LA 30 minutes later and everyone was ecstatic. Hotch sent the jet to go get Garcia and Kevin right away, so that they would be able to join them for dinner.

They drove straight to their hotel, which was on the nicest beach in the area. Most of the team decided to double up on rooms to save money, because this hotel wasn't being paid for by the FBI. Rossi wanted his own room, so Hotch got to have his own room as well. Emily and JJ were together, and down the hall, Morgan and Reid were sharing a room.

The rooms were really nice. There were two king size beds in each one. They had a Jacuzzi bathtub, a big shower, a sitting room with a TV, a kitchen, and a balcony with an ocean view. The room was tastefully decorated with a beach theme; not very original, but still pretty nonetheless.

JJ and Derek had agreed on the plane to not spend a bunch of time alone together, so that the team wouldn't be suspicious. She, Emily, and Reid went straight to the pool, while the rest of the men went out to find a place to eat and look around the city.

***Alright, I know nothing juicy happened in that chapter, but it's coming! I'm sorry I didn't add more to this. It's almost one in the morning and I have to wake up early tomorrow (today) to leave for that retreat, and I've been at Cedar Point the last three days. I'm exhausted. I have most of the next chapter already written, so it should be easier for me to update. I'm shooting for Monday or Tuesday. Let's pray it will happen!**

****I will also be starting another story soon. I'm thinkin' within the next two weeks before school starts. It will be a JJ/Emily story. I saw a video on YouTube that inspired me to write it. I'm usually not big on femslash, but I think this story would be really fun and great to write! Here's the link. You could call it a trailer! Makes me feel extra legit! Haha. If it doesn't work search for "JJ Emily Will Letting Go". All credit goes to Obso99 for the idea for this fic!**

.com/watch?v=qDRij3mlirQ


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Guys, I'm officially depressed. Not only did barely anybody update any of my favorite stories, but I didn't get ANY REVIEWS! Not one! Do you guys still like the story? I understand that was a short chapter, but I'm super busy. I'm posting now aren't I? Please review the story if you like it. If you are an author you'll understand how important those reviews are. I really hope that it was just a fluke. It would be super sad if no one was interested anymore. I'm just getting started! Haha. Ok. Please read and REVIEW!**

**BTW…I think you all will truly enjoy this chapter…a certain part of it at least!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds and I wish that I did. More depression… :P**

Chapter 10

The pool, or pools really, were beautiful at their resort. The main one had an amazing mini cliff waterfall with stone all around it. It was "Tiki" themed. There were huts and torches all around the pool that the girls were excited to see at night. The kids pool was shallow and had fun water toys and blow up animals to play with. There was a pool with big diving boards and the other half was for people to swim laps. There were hot tubs all around the pool deck. One was inside the mini cliff, there were a couple under some of the Tiki huts, and there was one next to the kids pool for the parents to watch their kids while they rested in the hot water.

The pool boys kept the Strawberry Daiquiris coming for the three agents. They laid out by the adult pool for a few hours. Spencer read a couple books, while JJ and Emily talked endlessly about what they should do while on vacation. Unfortunately, JJ couldn't tell the whole truth about WHO she wanted to do while on vacation.

The blonde loved and trusted the older brunette with all her heart, but she still didn't tell her about Derek. A part of JJ knew that she was being senseless. She knew they would find out eventually and she's just antagonizing herself by thinking about it too much, but she knew that if she told anyone from the team, especially Emily or Penelope, the whole BAU would find out quicker than JJ was ready for.

The ladies decided that they were going to go shopping the next day. They knew Garcia would want to come too when she got there. Dr. Reid opted out of the shopping experience. He wasn't a big fan of it. He said he would go to the beach with the other guys and get some more sun.

JJ felt a pang of sadness when she heard that the men weren't going to be shopping with them. She couldn't ditch shopping with the girls, and Morgan couldn't even pretend like he would rather go shopping than play beach volleyball.

"Well, well, well. Look at these lovely ladies…you look good too Prentiss," Derek chuckled as Emily hit his arm. Reid still didn't get the subtle joke.

"What are you boys doing here already? I thought you were going to find a place to eat?" Emily asked confused.

"We already found a place. It's really nice too. Hotch, Morgan, Reid, and I are going to pick up Garcia and Kevin at the airport in about 30 minutes. This restaurant calls for heels and ties, so if you don't have any dress clothes then I suggest you take the next two hours to go shop for some before our reservation," Rossi explained.

The girls squealed in excitement at the prospect of shopping AND dressing up for dinner. The boys could just wear nice button downs, but the girls got to wear dresses. Sure, they had to look nice for work, but they never got to really dress up. None of the men had ever even seen them in a dress. JJ realized that Derek hadn't even seen her in a dress before.

She also realized that since they were shopping tonight, maybe they wouldn't have to spend that much time shopping tomorrow and they could meet the boys at the beach after lunch. This could turn out to be really great after all.

Hotch agreed to drive Garcia to the strip they planned on shopping at so that she could meet the ladies on their mission, and get herself something nice as well.

Before their tech friend got there, JJ and Emily walked around trying to find a good place to buy nice clothes. Most of the places seemed very bohemian. Eventually they found a small boutique that carried beautiful dresses that would fit the occasion perfectly.

Hotch dropped Garcia off before either of the ladies had even started trying anything on, and she had someone else with her. It wasn't Kevin.

"JJ, who is that with Garcia?" Emily inquired.

Her question was soon answered when they ladies came through the door.

"Haley! It's so nice to see you! What are you doing here? Where is Jack?" JJ exclaimed.

"It's nice to see you too, Jennifer! Penelope called me and told me that I was going to meet Aaron in LA. Didn't really give me a choice, but I'm glad I came. It's beautiful here. Jack is with my sister."

"Please, call me JJ." She gave a small smile to her friend. Of course she would think to bring Haley with her and surprise their boss. She always thought of others. It was something JJ admired most about her. "Where's Kevin, Garcia?"

"He stayed with the men. The idea of shopping with me seemed to scare him a bit for some reason," Penelope giggled.

All four ladies continued looking through the endless racks of clothing. They each had at least five dresses to try on. They all went in to their dressing rooms and tried on the first one. Emily came out first in a navy blue dress that was high on her collar and had ugly ruffles going down each side. It had looked much better before she tried it on.

Garcia came next with a bright pink sequin dress that came down almost to her knees. She loved it. Emily agreed that it was right for her.

Haley didn't even come out in her first dress because she thought it was so awful, but the second one was very pretty. It had yellow and orange flowers all over it. It seemed very California.

Emily came out in her third dress and decided it was the one for her. Penelope and Haley (who already had their dresses) agreed. It was plain black and fit to her body. It sparkled when the light hit it just right.

JJ didn't really like showing outfits to other people until she was sure she was going to buy it. But she came out last in her third dress. It was pretty and it fit, but it didn't seem like the right one. It was the same situation with the fourth dress. All of the ladies agreed that it wasn't right. She tried on her fifth dress and it looked worse than the last two. She was about to give up when Garcia came back with another dress that she insisted JJ try on.

She reluctantly pulled the dress over her head and didn't even look in the mirror before opening the door and showing it to the waiting ladies. None of them said a word. They just stared at her.

JJ was embarrassed. "You know, let's just go somewhere else. I knew it wasn't going to work. I can't pull of the backless thing. I'll just-"

"You look amazing!" Penelope exclaimed, cutting her off.

"JJ, you've never looked sexier," Emily added.

"Please get that dress," Haley pleaded.

The blonde was shocked. What could be so spectacular about this dress that even _I_ look good in it? She stepped out of the changing room and looked at herself in the big double mirror.

The dress was fire red and more revealing than JJ was used to. It was tight at the bottom and only came about halfway down her thighs. The top was really loose, and the back was open and only connected by three gold chains that ran across it. The front dipped just low enough to see a little cleavage. A golden chain from the back came around and bordered the neckline. It was beautiful. She felt as though she should be on the red carpet somewhere.

"Wow," was all that JJ could say.

_Morgan is going to love this._ She slyly thought about his reaction when he saw her arrive to dinner with this beautiful gown.

The ladies checked out of the store and made their way to the hotel to get dressed. They had almost forty-five minutes to become fabulous-looking.

JJ and Emily went to their room and JJ hopped in the shower real fast. She made it out in five minutes so that Emily could take one too. They went to work blow drying their hair and applying make-up. After the blonde was done doing her hair, she hastily put on her dress and slipped into her shoes. They only had a few minutes before they had to be in the lobby. Emily spritzed both of them with her favorite perfume before the two ladies walked out the door.

Morgan and Reid were the first team members in the lobby. Garcia and Kevin came soon after. She had on a sparkly pink dress that matched the streaks in her hair. Derek would have expected nothing less from the tech goddess. He noted that Kevin was looking good as well. He grew out his facial hair a little bit and his hair was slicked back. His glasses were nowhere to be found and his outfit made him look very classy. Morgan felt a little homosexual for noticing another man's outfit, but he was trained to pick up on things like that.

Rossi came down next. He looked slick like usual. The man just looked like he could belong in the mob.

Hotch and Haley came down a few seconds later. They looked so happy to be together. It wasn't very often that they got out a Quantico alone and there were no dead bodies that needed to be attended to. Hotch wore just a yellow button-down shirt and black pants. Haley was in a flowery dress that suited her just right. She looked very pretty.

They continued to talk quietly as they waited for the two female members that had yet to show. The men were excited to show the ladies the restaurant that they had picked out. It was very beautiful and the food looked delicious.

Finally Emily came around the corner in a black dress that hugged her figure. Everyone complimented her on her attire.

"Where's Jayje?" Garcia asked her.

"Oh she forgot her purse. She'll be right down. She wanted me to come ahead and let you guys know that we were coming. Haha."

They were all standing in a circle. Derek was telling a story when he noticed that nobody was looking at him anymore. They were all looking behind him, mouths agape.

He turned around to see the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life.

JJ was walking toward them in a dress that would put a movie star to shame. It was red and fitted to her legs. It was loose at the top and low cut. The gold chains were the color of her hair, which was curled and pulled half back with a huge gold jewel used as the clip. She had golden shoes with a small heel.

They other ladies looked beautiful in their dresses, but even Hotch and Kevin would agree that JJ was stunning.

When the blonde reached her circle of friends they still hadn't stopped gawking. She knew that she looked good, but she still couldn't see why everyone was still staring and dumbfounded.

She cleared her throat and it snapped everyone out of their reverie.

"Um, are we all ready to go? Sorry I took so long. I forgot my purse in the room," she said shyly.

Hotch was the first to find his voice.

"It's quite alright. We still have ten minutes before our reservation. Let's head out now." He took the lead walking out the door.

_Wow. I love my wife, but JJ looks amazing. I'm sure Morgan is very excited about that dress. It'll be hard for him to control himself with her looking like that. Maybe they will just come clean. _Hotch happily thought to himself.

Morgan still hadn't found his voice. He just nodded and smiled at the beautiful woman in front of him as they turned to leave for the restaurant.

The place that the male members of the BAU picked out was exquisite. Every woman there was in a beautiful gown and all of the men were in snazzy shirts and ties. The waiter showed them to their table which was elegantly decorated with white roses and a black table cloth with red dishes.

Emily noticed that at the table next to theirs sat beautiful heiress Paris Hilton. She excitedly told the rest of the team and snapped a few pictures with her phone before a waiter gave her a dirty look. Who knew that Emily Prentiss was one to get star struck?

The dinner was delicious, yet uneventful. Derek and JJ sat next to each other, but rarely made eye contact. A lot of men in the restaurant had watched her since she entered, and she was beginning to feel a little self conscious. She had never been one to try to turn heads. Her secret boyfriend kept eyeing her and giving warning looks to any men that he noticed had been a paying a little too much attention to her.

Everybody at the table had eaten every bit of the food on their plate and they were now just drinking wine and telling jokes and stories. They had all officially let loose and were out of work mode. It was just a normal group of friends that were out to dinner in a famous city.

When they were done at the restaurant they walked the few blocks back to the hotel. Garcia and Kevin went back to their rooms claiming to be "tired". Everyone knew they just wanted some romantic alone time. Rossi went to the bar for some more drinks and to talk to a girl that he saw sitting by herself. Hotch, Haley, Reid, Morgan, JJ, and Emily all went to the lounge. There was jazz music playing and people slow dancing.

Haley and Aaron went straight to the dance floor and their subordinates sat down and listened to the music. After a few minutes Reid decided to go to the bar where Rossi was and maybe try his luck at snatching a female.

"They are so cute together!"Prentiss exclaimed. "It makes me want someone to dance with. Someone to just hold me and say he loves me. Someone to just-"

"Okay, okay Prentiss. We get it. I don't want to know all the details of your fantasy. You girls can discuss that later," Morgan cut in, laughing.

"Oh shut up. I don't want you knowing my fantasy either. I think I've had a little too much to drink. Maybe I should just go back to my room."

As if on cue, a tall man with jet black hair and bright blue eyes came walking up to the brunette.

"Excuse me miss, but I was wondering if you would like to join me in a dance?" the man said with a French accent. "Maybe we could get some drinks later, yeah?"

Emily tried to hide the smile that reached her ears while she accepted the man's hand and stood up. She turned back and whispered in JJ's ear.

"Don't wait up for me tonight," she said, and winked.

JJ laughed and nodded, an idea forming in her mind.

"What did she say?" Derek asked.

"She told me not to wait up for her tonight. Made it sound like she might not come back to the room…" she let a sly smile play on her lips before Morgan realized what she was thinking.

A smile spread across his face too as he thought about all of the possibilities. He and JJ had not done any more than kiss since they had been "dating". He wanted her to know that he was a gentleman, and he would wait for as long as she wanted before he tried anything more. But the idea of having a hotel room to themselves alone in a city like LA sent his mind wandering in so many directions.

She discretely placed her hand on his and stood up. She turned her back and began walking away before he even had a chance to stand himself. He caught up with her and saw that she was still smiling.

In the elevator Derek couldn't take his eyes off of his girlfriend. He put his hand on the small of her back and traced circles with his thumb until the doors opened and they practically ran to her room.

JJ fumbled with the key while Derek started kissing her neck from behind. She couldn't concentrate on what she was doing while he distracted her like that. Finally, he took the key and opened the door for her.

As soon as the door was closed JJ was up against it with Derek's lips covering her own. She hastily unbuttoned his shirt and threw it on the ground. She kicked off her shoes as well and he slid out of his.

Derek stopped the kissing for a second to breathe. "What about Emily?" he asked, worry clear in his voice.

"You saw her face. She won't be back tonight," JJ answered, breathing heavily.

"Are you sure?"

She answered with a kiss that sent his wits out of the field. He picked her up and carried her to the bed, making her dress slide up to her stomach.

He laid her down gently as his hands began roaming her body. She pulled the jewel out of her hair and it waved around her head. Derek began to slowly remove her dress with his left hand, while the right one supported his body from crushing the blonde.

Their bodies were pressed together, they had never been closer. He was just about to take it to the next step, when he saw JJ stop suddenly, shock written on her face. He turned around to see what she was looking at.

Fellow Agent Emily Prentiss was standing in the doorway looking incredibly embarrassed and horrified.

***Alright guys! There you go! There's that juice I was telling you about! I left you with a little bit of a cliffhanger didn't I? Gosh, I hate those. Well I promise to update quickly IF I get some reviews. Please? I do have the next chapter planned out for the most part, so please review so I feel inspired to update faster! It is juicy as well. **

****I'm also probably going to start that other story soon. The whole thing will be juicy. You can watch the trailer for it on YouTube. Search for "JJ Emily Will Letting Go". It'll be a good one! I might start a one-shot before that though…we'll see. **

*****I have a Twitter account in case you guys are interested. I don't know if you would be, but it's a way you guys could get to know ME a little more personally. Haha. Well I'm **_**chelseamarie44 **_**if you decide to look it up :) **


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Ahhhh! You guys really came through for me this time. I got lots of reviews. Like I promised, here is the next chapter posted super quickly after the last one! You guys rock! And thanks for adding me on Twitter some of you. It's awesome. I only got one so that I could follow the CM cast because I'm creepy like that. I didn't really expect anybody to ever follow me, mostly because I just didn't tell people I had one. I thought people only followed famous people…anyways, here some more of this lovely story!**

Chapter 11

Emily Prentiss made her way to her room after an awful date with the French guy. She didn't even remember his name. He was an okay dancer, but she could barely understand anything he said. Then when she went to get drinks from the bar with him, he told her that his boyfriend had just broken up with him and ended up crying on her shoulder. He said he wanted to "try out some females because men caused too much heartbreak". Needless to say, Emily was ready to go to bed.

She opened her door and almost choked on her own spit. JJ was lying on the bed with Derek on top of her! They were kissing and touching and….Emily didn't want to even see what else. His shirt was off and her dress was on its way off as well. She stood there for a few moments, unable to make her body move. Just as she was about to run out of the room and pretend like she didn't see anything JJ saw her.

Derek saw JJ's face and turned around to see the shocked woman as well. All three of them looked at each other uncomfortably, and then Emily quickly turned around and exited the room, almost slamming the door behind her.

"Well…that was exactly what we didn't want to happen," Morgan stated awkwardly.

"Yeah, no kidding," JJ was horrified. She would rather face a hundred unsubs than face her friend at that moment, but she had to. "I think I should go talk to her."

"That would probably be a good idea. Who knows what's going through her mind right now. What are you going to tell her though?" he asked.

"The truth," she said simply. "There's nothing else that I could tell her that would be believable. Everyone has their suspicions about us. We knew they would eventually find out one way or another. I guess we should tell the rest of the team too. I didn't want them to know, but I would rather have them watching us all the time, or asking us questions the whole trip, than to not be able to hold my boyfriend's hand as I walk down the street."

"I think that's the right choice, baby," Derek said as he leaned down to kiss her lips again. "You should probably go talk to her now though and let her know that the room is safe to come in again. You can explain everything to her tonight, and we'll tell the rest of the team tomorrow morning?"

"That sounds like a good plan."

JJ changed into some sweatpants and a tank top before heading down to the lobby to find the friend that she had just scarred for life.

She found Emily sitting on a sofa staring at the wall. She sat down next to her quietly. Emily still didn't even look at her.

"Hey."

"Hi," she responded coolly.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that. We thought that you would be gone all night…"

"Yeah, well apparently gay men don't decide to test the waters with the female population until they hit their thirties. Then they miss their gay partner so much that they end up crying on your shoulder until you finally excuse yourself to the ladies room and make a run for it."

"Oh, Em. I'm so sorry. That had to be awful," JJ said sympathetically.

"It was, but you know what's even more awful? When your best friend keeps a huge secret from you. Why didn't you tell me, JJ? Do you not trust me? Are we not as close as I thought we were? How long has this been going on?" Emily asked, hurt evident in her voice.

"I'm sorry, Em. I didn't want anyone to know at all. I just didn't want anyone to treat us differently. I didn't want Hotch to find out, even though I think he already knows. I knew that if it got around to Garcia then the whole Bureau would end up knowing. At first I was scared of other people knowing because then that would make us exclusive and then I could get hurt, and I don't want to get hurt, but then I just decided that I wanted to wait longer before anyone else knew so that we could have some alone time. Obviously that didn't work out very well, but do you understand what I'm saying? I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but do you understand why I didn't?"

Emily finally turned to look at her.

"It still hurts a little, but I'll be okay."

JJ smiled at her friend. She was so glad that she was past the high school age where a friend would have held this against her for her whole life. She gave Emily a big hug and grabbed her shoulders upon the release.

"Thank you. I really appreciate you not freaking out at me, or running to tell Hotch," JJ said seriously.

"Jayje, we aren't in middle school anymore. I wouldn't do that to you," the brunette laughed.

"I know you wouldn't, but still…thank you."

"Well you are very welcome, and as nice as this moment is, I'm extremely tired. Is it safe to go back into the room? I'm glad you made it to your own bed before clothing was removed," Emily said through a yawn.

"Yes, it's safe," JJ answered laughing.

"Okay, good. Well, in that case I am going to go to bed now. I expect to hear every single juicy detail about this relationship tomorrow when my eyes and brain have recovered. And when are you going to tell the team?"

"Derek and I are going to tell them all tomorrow at some point. We haven't worked out how and when yet, but we don't want to hide it anymore. Well, he wanted to tell them right off the bat, but I wasn't ready. Now I am though, so we'll figure it out and let them in on the latest BAU scandal."

"Hahaha. Okay. Are you coming up now?" Emily yawned again.

"I think I'm going to stay down here for a little bit."

"Alright. Goodnight."

"See ya in the morning."

JJ sat there for another 30 minutes thinking about everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks. She had no idea how they would tell the rest of the team. Talking to Emily was easy, but everyone else would take it differently.

Garcia would be angry that neither JJ nor Morgan had told her how far this romance had gone. Hotch would be disappointed, but he already knew, so his reaction will be smug. Reid is oblivious to this sort of thing, so he'll be completely shocked. Rossi, well, he probably won't care at all.

JJ was the media liaison for the FBI. She dealt with relaying unpleasant things to the public and families all the time, but she was undoubtedly nervous about tomorrow's announcement. She was happy that Morgan would be there with her for the whole thing. She could always count on him for support.

***Hey! So I know that was kind of short compared to last chapter, but it needed to stop there because I think the next one is gonna be extra long. This is your present for all of those awesome reviews! I got the chapter up within two days!** **It wasn't easy kids, I assure you. **

****So now I want to hear from you again about something else….I'm about to start school again, therefore I won't have as much time to update (I think). I want to start on that other story I told you about, (did anybody look it up on YouTube?), but that means the update for this will take a little longer. So what do you guys want? Do you want to see the first chapter of my new story, or the next chapter in this story next? Either way, I will try to get the winner up by Wednesday. Let me know when you REVIEW! Bye :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry I didn't get this one up as quickly as I thought I would, but I WAS working on it. I wrote some of it during study hall and now I'm writing more. :) Anyways, thanks for all of the reviews! They are super great! I have some exciting (I think) news to tell you all, but I'll wait until the end of the chapter for that! And let the story continue….**

**I always forget this….DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of the characters. It is very sad. **

Chapter 12

JJ stayed down in the lobby for a while after Emily left. She thought about how she was going to tell these people that were like her family that she had been keeping a huge secret from them. Garcia was who she was mostly worried about, though.

Emily was a very dear friend, but Penelope and JJ were closer than anyone on the team, besides Derek of course. He was close with both ladies in different ways. She would be very hurt and angry when she found out that neither her best friend, nor her "chocolate thunder" had told her the extent of their relationship. She knew about the little crush, but she did not know that it was love that now brought her two best friends together.

JJ gave a startled jump when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whipped her head around only to see her soul mate standing there with a small smile gracing his perfect face.

"Hey," he said, still smiling.

He came around and sat next to her on the couch. JJ snuggled into his broad chest and he wrapped his arms around her small frame. She returned his greeting with a kiss and then went back to lying on his chest.

"How did you know I would still be down here?" JJ murmured, her words muffled by Morgan's shirt.

"Because I know you, and I know you're worried about tomorrow," he answered and kissed her forehead.

"Stupid profilers."

He chuckled. He was exhausted, but he knew that JJ needed him right now, and he would always be there for her when she needed him.

She angled her head so that she was looking into Derek's deep brown eyes.

"Everything is going to be different after tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Probably," he answered honestly.

"But it will all be okay, right?" she asked him. She was so tired as well. Her walls were like rubber now; she was slowly letting her guard down. When this happened, she vocalized all of her fears with a childlike innocence. It was why he loved her. She seemed so put together and in control, but underneath all of that she was so vulnerable.

He leaned back and held her shoulders in his hands.

"JJ, listen to me. These people are like our family. The ONLY reason any of them would be mad at us is because we waited so long to tell them. Garcia is the only person I can think of that will actually care one the initial shock is over." He cradled her face in his hands and brought it inches away from his own. "You know I love you, right?"

She looked straight into his eyes and nodded her head just once before his lips crushed into hers once again. JJ put her hands on his chest and found the will to push him away before they got too carried away in public.

"I know it will be fine. I guess I've always known deep down. I just work myself up too much. I'm not going to bed until we come up with a plan on telling them, though. You know I won't be able to sleep for a second without some sort of planning. I want to tell Garcia first. She deserves to know before the rest of the team. I want you to tell her with me. It won't be very long that she knows what they don't, but it'll be enough."

"You're right. She deserves to know before the others, but I don't know how we can get her alone; especially with Kevin here. We'll figure something out. It will just have to depend on what we are all going to do tomorrow. Listen though, I think that when we do tell everyone, we should just come right out and say it. Just be straight about it, don't beat around the bush. I'll do it if you want me to."

JJ thought about his suggestion. It made sense. It was like ripping of a band-aid. He can just tell them, wait for the reaction, and deal with it then. She had her assumptions about how they would react, but she didn't know for sure. They couldn't plan for something they didn't know about.

She nodded her head and he let that smile slip onto her face that she so dearly loved. She felt better now. He was right; they weren't going to be kicked off the team. They wouldn't be hated by everyone. The world wasn't going to end. Everything would be okay.

"Babe, you know I always want to be here for you when you need me, but I'm really tired. It's like two in the morning. Are you ready to go to bed now?" Derek asked trying to stifle a yawn.

"Yeah, I'm ready for bed too. It's been a long day, and we have another one ahead of us."

Morgan stood up and pulled his girlfriend up with him. He held her small hand as he walked her to her respective room. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss before she entered her room and he walked back to his own.

The team had met up in the lobby around 11 the next morning. JJ and Morgan were both nervous, but ready to share their news. JJ had talked to Emily about a plan to get Garcia to themselves for a couple of minutes that morning while they were getting ready. The brunette had almost forgotten about what she had witnessed the previous night, but as soon as she saw the blonde liaison sleeping in the bed next to her, it all came flooding back into her memory bank.

She had wanted all of the juicy details right away, but JJ wasn't going to talk about it until she could get both female members of the team together. She didn't want to have to repeat the same story over and over again for each person they told.

The ladies walked downstairs and greeted each member with a still-sleepy smile. Emily got started on the plan right away and invited everyone to get some coffee in the lounge while JJ asked Garcia to accompany her to the "bathroom". The two blondes turned a corner and ran right into Derek Morgan. Penelope said a quick greeting and then proceeded to walk towards the bathroom, but Morgan caught her by the arm.

"Hold on, my chocolate prince. Jayje has to go to the bathroom," Garcia said as she pointed at a very nervous-looking JJ.

"Actually, baby girl, she was just tryin' to get you away from everyone else. We need to talk to you about something. You need to understand that we are telling you before the others because you mean a lot to both of us and we trust you."

He looked at JJ to continue with the explanation, but she merely nodded her head for Derek to keep going. Garcia looked between the two apprehensively.

"What is going on?" she demanded.

"Well…you see, uh, me and JJ, well we've been kind of…uh," Morgan searched for the right words. He thought they would just come to him, but standing in front of one of his best friends and admitting that he had been keeping a secret form her had a him a little flustered.

"Just spit it out, Derek!"

Penelope and Morgan both looked at the blonde who had remained silent throughout the whole conversation. JJ blushed. She wasn't expecting that to come out of her mouth, but the anticipation of what this conversation would bring had her over the edge. She just wanted her friend to know what this was all about. She decided to take the lead.

"Morgan and I have been seeing each other for the past couple of weeks, now. We are in love. We didn't, well I didn't, want to tell anyone, but Emily caught us in my room last night and there was no way to deny it. I explained everything to her, and now I'm explaining everything to you. Please don't be mad at us. We're sorry we didn't tell you sooner. It all just happened so fast and I was worried about my heart being broken and we didn't know what everyone would think and we didn't want to be under a microscope the whole trip and…I don't know."

JJ was finally at a loss for words. She hadn't taken a breath since she started talking, but she reminded herself to breathe in deep while she waited for her best friend to respond to the shocking revelation.

Garcia just stood there for a second trying to wrap her mind around the information she had just been given. She had had her suspicions, but having them confirmed like this, to this degree, was way more than she was expecting. Finally, she snapped out of her reverie and looked at both of her friends with a serious look on her face.

"Well…I can't say that I was expecting this, but I've never heard more exciting news in my entire life! Oh my God! Jayje! Honey! I can't believe you guys didn't tell me! I'll think about that later. Right now I'm just so excited! Ahhhh! Wait until I tell the rest of them! They will all be thrill-"

"Whoa whoa there, mama. You aren't going to tell the rest of the team. Don't get too excited about that. JJ and I are going to tell them in a little bit. We only told you before them because we are both close to you and we thought that you deserved to know first, besides Emily of course, but we didn't choose for that to happen," Derek explained.

"Okay, okay," Penelope said looking dejected. "But you are going to do it right now, Jennifer Jareau and Derek Morgan. These people, including myself, should have known about this forever ago. You hurry your little butts into the lounge and tell them all about your secret announcement!"

The three laughed as they walked back to the lobby, but JJ instantly stopped as soon as she caught sight of the round table that sat the people she called family. Derek could feel her apprehensiveness and gave her a reassuring smile. Garcia walked over and sat next to Kevin smiling, while her two best friends stood at the head of the table.

Morgan cleared his throat loudly and the table got quiet.

"Everyone, I, I mean we, have an announcement." He grabbed the small hand of the woman standing next to him as he found the courage to speak.

"JJ and I are in love," he said simply.

****Ahhhh! Sorry to leave it at that, but remember...Reviews make Chelsea update faster! (That's me!) Anyways, I hope you liked it. I know I said it would be longer, but I decided to have some suspense! Please REVIEW! I promise it makes me update faster.**

***Also for that somewhat exciting news I mentioned earlier...I AM going to start that new story about JJ and Emily and Will soon. As in very soon. I don't know when I will actually post the first chapter, but I am ready to work on it and get the ball rolling! Please check it out! I'm not typically into femslash, but this storyline was jsut so great, I had to write it. Check out the trailer on YouTube! Search for "JJ Emily Will Letting Go". ANDDDDD I will be starting a Higher Ground and Criminal Minds crossover soon as well. I'm pretty excited about it because I have it pretty thoroughly planned out, which is new for me! haha! So check that one out as well...when i post it. This story will still be my first priority until it is finished though! Don't worry. Then I will focus on the other two some more, and then I plan to make a sequel :) So stay tuned! and please RRRREEEEVVVIIIEEEWWWWWW!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: Hey guys! I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed in the lack of reviews. There were only a couple, but I do appreciate those few! :) I guess I would just really appreciate it if everyone that is reading this story would at least review once, but I would be ecstatic to get a bunch for every chapter! That was a big chapter though! I thought I would earn a lot. Oh well…this chapter took a little longer to post because I wasn't feeling the inspiration that I needed, plus I'm really busy with school and work and such. *I posted a new Higher Ground story! If you like the show, please go check it out. It is a really deep introspect into the lives of the teens before they went to Horizon. And leave a review!***

Chapter 13

"_JJ and I are in love." _

Reid choked on his coffee, while Kevin spilled his. Garcia and Emily exchanged small smiles. Rossi remained indifferent; he just continued sipping his coffee as he watched the reaction of his teammates. Hotch surprisingly looked shocked. He hadn't expected them to come out with it like that, so blunt. Haley smiled at the younger blonde.

JJ squeezed Morgan's hand tighter while she waited for everyone to get themselves under control. She looked up at the man she loved and he winked at her.

"It could have gone worse," he whispered into her ear.

"How-how long has this been going on?" Spencer asked desperately, looking back and forth between the two agents holding hands. "I mean…I mean…"

Rossi cut the young agent off. "I think what the kid is trying to say is, why didn't you tell us?"

Reid nodded his head fiercely at the older man.

"We just did," Derek answered calmly. He was still nervous, but the worst part was over. He had to keep it cool because he knew that JJ was waiting for an explosion.

"When did you two start having less than professional feelings for each other?" Hotch asked. The question made JJ feel uncomfortable.

"Um…a few weeks now, I guess. Shortly before the incident in the bullpen," she stammered.

Each agent took a moment to recall what had happened on that strange day. It had been a big deal at the time. It was new and exciting news, but now everyone had forgotten about it and didn't really look into it or ask questions anymore. Now they all felt dumb for not inquiring about it further.

"Doesn't it just make you feel like you fail at your job?" Emily joked. She wasn't going to tell anyone about her walk-in on the couple. She figured they wouldn't want anyone to know, and she certainly didn't want to have to explain anything about how she found them or WHY she found them in the first place; she recalled her disastrous date.

They all laughed except for Reid. He was the only one that had had NO idea about his two co-workers. He just stared at them with a shocked expression. It almost made JJ laugh. It was one of the things she loved most about their young doctor, he was a genius, but he was also completely clueless.

"Well, congratulations to you both. I'm happy you told us, even if it was a little later than we would have liked." Hotch let a rare smile slip onto his face as winked at JJ, reminding her of the talk he had tried to have with her about this.

"Now I want to know the full story. You barely told me anything last night-"

"You knew last night!" Spencer nearly yelled, cutting Emily off.

"Well, I…uh-I mean…" Emily didn't quite know how to answer that question without giving away the fact that she had seen more of her fellow teammates than she would have liked to. Luckily, JJ came to the rescue.

"Derek and I were in my room that I share with Emily and she sort of, well, walked in on us…kissing," JJ spit out. Her face was turning a bright shade of red.

Derek looked at the woman he loved in amazement. This was hard enough for her to tell them that her and Derek were together, but now she was going and telling them that they were in her room alone…kissing? He wanted to laugh and take her into his arms right at that moment.

The table got silent again.

"Oh."

A few moments passed by in awkward silence. JJ was as red as a tomato, but she kept a smile on her face to assure Morgan that she was okay with her decision to tell them about their little interruption last night.

Garcia broke the quiet reverie. "So start from the beginning. Tell me everything that I don't know."

"She knows too?" Reid practically whined. "Did you all know? Am I the only one that was left in the dark?"

He looked at Hotch.

"I had my suspicions, and before you ask, yes Haley had hers as well," Hotch answered the unspoken question.

"Garcia? Emily? Rossi?...Kevin?" He looked at each agent expectantly.

"I only knew that Morgan had a crush on her from after the bullpen incident," Garcia said

"I only found out last night," Emily answered reassuringly.

"I've known it since I started working here that it would only be a matter of time, but I didn't have any proven suspicions until I came out of the bathroom and saw them get into the elevator alone last night. I don't know why, but I just knew for some reason that it was only a matter of time before they came to us. And look how right I was," Rossi said matter-of-factly. He chuckled a bit and the team joined him, except for Reid.

"Kevin?" He stared at his last hope.

"I had no idea buddy."

The genius gave a small sigh of relief.

Penelope piped in. "If you're done now, can we please hear the story of your relationship?" she asked in a dreamy tone. Morgan felt like he was in a chic flick.

"Let's give them some time to adjust to our knowing about them. We can interrogate the two of them later," Rossi interjected.

"Ugh. Okay. You WILL be answering my questions sooner or later; you got that sugar cheeks?" Garcia playfully threatened.

JJ could have given the older man a hug. She just wasn't in the mood to talk about it anymore. She was just glad that nobody had stoned her to death or written LIAR on her forehead. Maybe that was a little dramatic, but she was grateful nonetheless.

They sat down with their friends and continued breakfast almost normal. She could see the sideways glances they were getting from everybody. It was bound to happen, but it didn't bother her as much as she thought it would have. All in all she was pleased with how things turned out. The blonde was excited for the rest of the vacation with the man that she loved and no secrets from her family.

****I'll end there. I hope you guys liked it! Next will be that steamy beach scene that some of you were wanting :) Please leave some reviews, guys. I barely got any last time and it made me sad, therefore updating took longer. Reviews=inspiration. Inspiration=faster/more writing. Get it? Haha.**

***Don't forget to look at my other story that I just posted! It's a super tight Higher Ground story about each character. Please give it a chance. And I PROMISE that new JJ/Emily story is going to happen soon. I've been thinking about writing it all of the time, I just haven't sat down and done it yet, but I will! So stay tuned! And please REVIEW! **


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Oh my God, guys I am soooo sorry this took so long to update. I have been so incredibly busy it's not even funny. I don't think I've slept for more than 7 hours at a time in months! But because I LOVE you all and miss getting review alerts *hint hint* I am going to stay up way later and write this whole chapter for you! I promise I am going to try harder to work on my stories. I have written another one since I've updated this one. It's another JJ/Morgan called "Jump". Written for the PYOP on Chit Chat on Author's Corner Challenge. - that was worded awkwardly…sorry! So go check it out and please send me some reviews. I'm starting to feel abandoned :( And I know I've been saying this for months, but I AM going to start on that JJ/Emily story soon! I think you guys will like it if you're into scandalous stories. I already know a majority of the stories events, so I'm not going to be making it up as I go. That's a first! Haha. Anyways, onto the story!**

***Disclaimer- Unfortunately, this amazing show does not belong to me, nor do the sexy-ass characters of which I would do anything to possess. Is that creepy?**

Chapter 14

The team finished breakfast quickly. Rossi's order to not pester the couple silenced any further questioning they might have had to endure, (for the time being). Garcia and Prentiss were ready to pounce as soon as they got their media liaison alone for a few minutes.

JJ and Derek were grateful to the oldest member of their team. They were actually able to eat breakfast in peace.

"So what do you guys think about a day trip to the beach? I've arranged for us to have a spot right outside of the hotel in the best location. It's close to the water, not very crowded, and a small bar is very close," Haley said with a smile. She was happy that she could do something nice for her extended family. She didn't get to see them much, but her husband spent almost all of his time with them. She wanted to make herself as much a part of the group as possible.

They all thanked their section chief's wife as they went their separate ways to their rooms. Penelope brought her bathing suit over to Emily and JJ's room so she could hear the story of how her two best friends became 'secret lovers'.

"Okay, sweet cheeks- spill!" Garcia demanded as soon as JJ opened the door for her.

"Oh, my gosh! I cannot wait to hear this!" Emily exclaimed.

JJ sighed as she walked across the room and sat down on the bed, pulling her legs up under her Indian style. "Well, I suppose it all started when Hotch took us all out to the bar after that really tough case…" she waited for them to remember and continued when the smiles on their faces told her they did.

"Go on," Emily prodded.

"Well, both of us had had a fair amount of drinks and we started dancing together…" JJ blushed as she could vaguely remember _how _they were dancing together.

"Ha! There's no way my big chocolate god would have missed out on dancing with a hot, drunk blonde!" Penelope shouted excitedly. JJ playfully slapped her arm.

"I wasn't that drunk!"

"Honey, when I saw you dancing with that other guy, I thought I was seeing your slutty twin or something. You were ALL OVER HIM!" Emily laughed.

"I was dancing with another guy?" JJ asked as a blush crept up her face.

"Her point has been proven. Anyways, what happened next?" Garcia egged her on.

JJ told them what she could remember of that night- the kiss, the dancing, the smell of him, his heavy breathing. She proceeded to tell them about hanging out after the case at the coffee shop, and eventually made it through the whole situation with Agent Daniels to the past night when they were caught by Emily. Both ladies sat with their mouths agape as they listened to JJ tell the extent of her love for their bald co-worker. She finished after 30 minutes and suggested that they go meet the men downstairs for a steamy day at the beach.

Their spot was even better than Haley had made it out to be. There was a chair for each person. Each chair had a cup holder and a built-in pillow for the head. A short walk down the beach was a small outdoor bar and a beach volleyball court. They were right on the ocean and the water was warm. The sand was white and powdery and the water was bright blue and you could see the ocean floor.

The women got there first. They laid out their towels and applied a very minimal amount of sunscreen as they prepared for a relaxing day at the beach. They talked and laughed for an hour before the men showed up from their shopping spree.

The boys of the BAU went to a shop near the hotel to get some fun stuff for the beach. They bought a volleyball, boogie boards, a cooler with some ice and beers, more towels, and Spencer got an "I Love LA" hat. They were ready for some fun in the sun.

Derek, of course, had been forced to tell his colleagues about his relationship with their media liaison. Luckily for him, men didn't squeal and beg for all the juicy details like Garcia and Prentiss had done, but they were inquisitive and Morgan had a fair few questions to answer. He told them the whole story from the night at the bar to the present. Even Rossi was surprised at how little he had known about the couple. He knew that they had been together for a while, but he didn't know how long or that it started at the bar.

Derek walked onto the beach and saw the woman he loved laying out on the chair as the sunlight danced across her skin. She looked so beautiful with her eyes closed and her mouth relaxed. Her bikini showed off more body than Morgan had ever seen, and he thanked the Lord for her killer body. She was already starting to get a noticeable tan. Morgan walked over and crouched down next to her. He looked behind him to see if anyone was paying attention to him, and no one was, so he gave JJ a small kiss on the lips to let her know he was here.

JJ opened her eyes to see the man of her dreams with his face inches from hers. He smiled at her and she felt hotter than the sun could ever make her.

"Hey baby, you want to go get in the water with me?" Derek asked sweetly as he began to take off his shirt.

JJ could only nod as she watched her boyfriend slowly pull his shirt over his tight muscles. She suppressed a moan when she got to see his whole upper half, naked. He was beyond gorgeous. His rock-hard abs were so defined, and his pecs would have any woman swooning.

Derek smiled when he saw how JJ was looking at his body. He knew he was a good-looking guy with a very good-looking body, but he didn't realize it would have THIS affect on the ever-controlled Jennifer Jareau.

He took her hand in his and they headed straight for the warm Pacific Ocean for some much-needed romantic fun.

***Hey! I know that was kind of short and nothing too major happened, but I PROMISE to be back sooner with the next chapter! School and work are starting to settle down so I should have more time…SHOULD being the key term there. I'm not very happy with the writing in this chapter. I looks kind of lazy, but I really wanted to get something out for you guys and I just don't think I had the energy to go back and redo it. So I promise that the next chapter will be better written. Please leave me some reviews for the inspiration to come again soon! Who knows, maybe if you all are REALLY generous with your thoughts, I could have an update by Wednesday? Or maybe even tomorrow!**

****Next chapter will be a continuation of the beach scene. I'm planning on it getting pretty **_**hot**_** on the beach *wink wink*. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me some reviews! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Guys I'm so devastated right now I don't even know what to do with myself. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep JJ alive through our fics. She is a [art of the family. Criminal Minds is much more a part of my life than it should be, but I don't even care. That woman has changed my life through her acting skills. Maybe im so upset because im a 17 year old girl…or because im on my period and I cant find any fucking chocolate. But PLEASE give your respect. Continue to watch the show, but don't forget JJ. She was the heart of Criminal Minds and it's going to be a mess without her. Okay, I'll get off of my soap box now. **

**New chapter should be out very soon…**


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: OH MY GOD! How many times can I say sorry before you guys forgive me? I'm becoming my least favorite kind of writer! I seriously have just had NO TIME ever! I work every night and have school during the day and homework and my school is going to state for football! It's a big deal as a senior, so I've been doing a lot of stuff with that. But anyways, I'm going to finish the story off with this chapter. I hope it's a good one! I certainly kept you waiting long enough! Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday! :) Please review review review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of these characters unfortunately :( **

**Chapter 16**

Morgan scooped JJ up into his arms and ran into the waves, splashing warm, salty water everywhere.

"Ahh! Derek, stop!" JJ screamed and went into a fit of giggles.

They played like children in the water for a while before Derek grabbed JJ's wrists and pulled her up against his bare chest. He gently caressed her cheek before leaning in and kissing her with so much passion the sun could have melted. They stayed close together for another half an hour, talking quietly and offering small kisses to one another.

When they finally joined the rest of the team back on the sandy beach, they were greeted with cat calls and jokes about their time in the water. Their friends had obviously seen their kiss. The couple just laughed with them and laid down on their blue and white beach chairs.

The day was relaxing. The whole team played beach volleyball for a little bit, but Reid got hit in the face by a ball Emily hit, so they decided to stop and eat.

Time passed with laughs and stories and not a care in the world. JJ and Morgan couldn't be happier about being out with their relationship. Emily found herself a man to buy her drinks and spend some time with. Hotch and Hayley went back to their room early to be alone. Kevin, Garcia, Reid and Rossi went to an outdoor bar a little ways down the beach.

JJ and Morgan ran up to their rooms for a little bit to use the restroom and freshen up. Morgan said he was going to take JJ on a romantic date. He told her to meet him at the entrance to the beach at nine o'clock.

JJ quickly peeled off her bikini and slipped on some denim shorts and a thin, loose, white top with Capri sleeves. She left her hair down and only put on a little bit of foundation.

She made her way to the entrance of the beach and found a surprise waiting for her there. Small, white candles formed a walkway onto the beach. She couldn't see the end, so she followed the path and gasped when she saw what was at the end.

A small table with two chairs was covered in a white cloth and had roses and a bottle of wine sitting on it. White plates and silverware were set up beautifully for a meal. Next to the table was a huge, beautiful fluffy light blue blanket laid out with small pillows in the middle of it.

JJ stood there stunned when she felt a hand on her waist. She turned around to see Derek Morgan grinning cheekily at her. Words had escaped her so she just thrust her arms around his neck and gave him a huge kiss. She stood back and realized he was wearing light blue jeans with a white, button down shirt. They almost matched.

She couldn't get over how romantic this was, like it was straight out of a cheesy romance movie. He took her over to the table and sat them both down. He reached under the table for a minute and soft music started playing.

"You look beautiful, JJ."

The blonde simply blushed. "Derek, I can't believe it! How did you-why did you…?"

"Shhh. Don't ask questions. Enjoy it. This night is about you and me," Derek smiled at her again.

They ate their dinner with small conversation. When they were done with their food Derek stood up and walked over to her side of the table…and got down on one knee.

JJ gasped at his gesture, but he put his finger to her lips, then grabbed both of her hands.

"JJ, Jennifer Jareau. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my entire life. Something changed when we danced together that one night. The feelings that I had tried to keep tucked away for ages came pouring out, and I know they will never go away. I want to be with you, JJ. Forever. I want to see you every morning when I wake up. I want you to give birth to my children. I want to make a life with you and grow old together. I want to marry you. I promise to love you until the day I die, and I promise to make you the happiest woman alive, if you agree to be with me forever. That would make me the happiest man alive," he pulled a ring out of his back pocket. "Will you wear this ring, JJ? Will you marry me?"

A single tear of happiness slowly rolled down JJ's cheek as she looked at the man she loved. She leaned forward and hugged him, pushing him back against the blanket. Her lips met his in passionate need. She tried to go forever without breaking the kiss, but Morgan rolled them over so that he was on top and pulled back from her.

"So should I take that as a yes?" he asked smiling.

JJ nodded her head and he slipped the ring onto her left hand. She then reached up and kissed him again. They stayed on the beach like that all night, loving every touch, every smell, every sound, everything about each other. And they did love each other, forever.

The End.

****Okay I know that was kind of a short ending chapter, but I think I'm happy with the ending. I hope you are too! I will probably write a sequel with a big plot twist or something, but it probably won't be for a while. I don't want to start a new story if I'm never going to be able to write it. But anyways, I hope you guys liked it! And Please! If you haven't reviewed for this story already, please at least review the story as a whole! (meaning this chapter!) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! :)**

**Thank you all for reading! And check back for more stories. I will be trying to get on those as soon as possible! Night!**


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